Designing
Language Courses
DESIGNING
LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
l(a thleen Graves
School for International Training
A TeacherSource Book
Donald Freeman
Series Editor
rieinle 8c rieinle
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Dedication
T
o my father, Thomas Graves, whose belief in the power of
education has been a source of inspiration and support.
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DEDICATION •
iii
Thank You
The series editor, authors and publisher would like to thank the following individuals who
offered many helpful insights throughout the development of the TeacherSource series.
JoAnn Aebersold
Linda Lonon Blanton
Tommie Brasel
Jill Burton
Margaret B. Cassidy
Florence Decker
Silvia G. Diaz
Margo Downey
David E. Eskey
Alvino Fantini
Sandra Fradd
Jerry Gebhard
Fred Genesee
Stacy Gildenston
Jeannette Gordon
Else Hamayan
Sarah Hudelson
Joan Jamieson
Elliot L. Judd
Donald N. Larson
Numa Markee
Denise E. Murray
Meredith Pike-Baky
Sara L. Sanders
Lilia Savova
Donna Sievers
Ruth Spack
Leo van Lier
Eastern Michigan University
University of New Orleans
New Mexico School for the Deaf
University of South Australia
Brattleboro Union High School, Vermont
University of Texas at El Paso
Dade County Public Schools, Florida
Boston University
University of Southern California
School for International Training
University of Miami
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
University of California at Davis
Colorado State University
Illinois Resource Center
Illinois Resource Center
Arizona State University
Northern Arizona University
University of Illinois at Chicago
Bethel College, Minnesota (Emeritus)
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
San Jose State University
University of California at Berkeley
Coastal Carolina University
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Garden Grove Unified School District, California
Tufts University
Monterey Institute of International Studies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION .............................................................................................. .iii
AcKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................. vii
SERIES EDITOR's PREFACE ........................................................................... .ix
CHAPTER
1:
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN ................................ 1
CHAPTER
2:
DEFINING THE CONTEXT ......................................................... 13
CHAPTER
3:
ARTICULATING BELIEFS ............................................................ 25
CHAPTER
4:
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT .................................................. 37
CHAPTER
5:
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ........ : .......................... 73
CHAPTER
6:
AssESSING NEEDS ................................................................... 97
CHAPTER
7:
ORGANIZING THE COURSE .................................................... 123
CHAPTER
8:
DEVELOPING MATERIALS ....................................................... 149
CHAPTER
9:
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK ........................................................ 173
CHAPTER
10:
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN ........................................ 207
APPENDIX ................................................................................................ 23 7
REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 303
TEXT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................... 308
TABLE OF CONTENTS • V
ACI(NOWLEOGMENTS
This book is the result of extensive collaboration with many language teachers, especially
the twenty-eight teachers who took my course design seminar in 1997. While not all of their
voices are featured in the book, they all worked with me to articulate the kinds of things a
teacher needs to know and be able to do in order to design a course:
Kay Alcorn, Dylan Bate, Toby Brody, Iris Broudy, Michelle Carr,
Chris Conley, Akemi Fujimoto, Jessica Gahm, Michael Gatto,
Amy Ginsburg, Derica Griffiths, Jeremy Hedge,]. D. Klemme,
Jon Kmetz, Carole Knobloch, John Kongsvik, Denise Lawson,
Ann Leonard, Denise Maksail-Fine, David Markus, Patricia Naccarato,
Ali Pahlavanlu, Brooke Palmer, Mary Patten, Sharon Rose-Roth,
Jennie Steele, Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig, and David Thomson.
When I was in Sao Paulo, Monica Camargo, Simone Camillo, Eliana Pinto, Andrea
Porchia, Rosa Silva, Wagner Veillard, and Lauro Gisto Xavier were some of the early
testers of the ideas in the book.
I had the good fortune to be Sally Cavanaugh's outside evaluator for her M.A. thesis on learner-centred assessment. I wish I could have used more of Carolyn Layzer and
Judy Sharkey's material-next book! I was pleased to finally use some of Valarie
Barnes' work.
My spring 1998 independent study group used the book in draft form and asked me
numerous questions, not all of which I have been able to answer! Thanks to Meredith
Askey, Kate Carney, Mark Hansen, Tom Kuehn, Jennifer Meese, Joanne Richman, Dan
Riney, Roshani SenGupta, Leigh Anne Sippel, Wendy Wen, and Pam Woodward.
I would like to thank the teachers at Queensland University of Technology who so
graciously agreed to review the first draft of the book and gave me insightful feedback:
Melitsa Apostolos, Julie Barf£, Kim Griffin, Shirley Martin, and Bella Sandelin.
Thanks to Markus Greutmann for his feedback on Chapter 9.
Five reviewers, including series editor Donald Freeman, gave me valuable feedback on
the book. I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their encouraging comments. I would especially like to thank Penny McKay for her thorough and thoughtful
review of the book. As I revised, I felt that I was in a professional dialogue with her. I
would also like to thank Karen Johnson for her suggestions and particularly her timely
help with Chapter 9.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS •
Vii
Finally, I would like to thank my daughters, Emily and Laura, for being willing to wade
through a very messy study to get to their e-mail. They have promised to remind me to
write my next book during a sabbatical. And a lasting thank you to Donald Freeman,
spouse and colleague, for convincing me that I really did want to write this book.
Viii •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
SERJES EDITOR'S PREFACE
As I was driving just south of White River Junction, the snow had started falling in earnest.
The light was flat, although it was mid-morning, making it almost impossible to distinguish the highway in the gray-white swirling snow. I turned on the radio, partly as a distraction and partly to help me concentrate on the road ahead; the announcer was talking about the snow. "The state highway department advises motorists to use extreme
caution and to drive with their headlights on to ensure maximum visibility." He went on,
his tone shifting slightly, "Ray Burke, the state highway supervisor, just called to say that
one of the plows almost hit a car just south of Exit 6 because the person driving hadn't
turned on his lights. He really wants people to put their headlights on because it is very
tough to see in this stuff." I checked, almost reflexively, to be sure that my headlights
were on, as I drove into the churning snow.
How can information serve those who hear or read it in making sense of their own
worlds? How can it enable them to reason about what they do and to take appropriate
actions based on that reasoning? My experience with the radio in the snow storm illustrates two different ways of providing the same message: the need to use your headlights
when you drive in heavy snow. The first offers dispassionate information; the second tells
the same content in a personal, compelling story. The first disguises its point of view; the
second explicitly grounds the general information in a particular time and place. Each
means of giving information has its role, but I believe the second is ultimately more useful in helping people make sense of what they are doing. When I heard Ray Burke's story
about the plow, I made sure my headlights were on.
In what is written about teaching, it is rare to find accounts in which the author's
experience and point of view are central. A point of view is not simply an opinion; neither is it a whimsical or impressionistic claim. Rather, a point of view lays out what the
author thinks and why; to borrow the phrase from writing teacher Natalie Goldberg, "it
sets down the bones." The problem is that much of what is available in professional
development in language-teacher education concentrates on telling rather than on point
of view. The telling is prescriptive, like the radio announcer's first statement. It emphasizes what is important to know and do, what is current in theory and research, and
therefore what you-as a practicing teacher-should do. But this telling disguises the
teller; it hides the point of view that can enable you to make sense of what is told.
The TeacherSource series offers you a point of view on second/foreign language teaching. Each author in this series has had to lay out what she or he believes is central to the
topic, and how she or he has come to this understanding. So as a reader, you will find
SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE •
iX
this book has a personality; it is not anonymous. It comes as a story, not as a directive,
and it is meant to create a relationship with you rather than assume your attention. As a
practitioner, its point of view can help you in your own work by providing a sounding
board for your ideas and a metric for your own thinking. It can suggest courses of action
and explain why these make sense to the author. And you can take from it what you will,
and do with it what you can. This book will not tell you what to think; it is meant to
help you make sense of what you do.
The point of view in TeacherSource is built out of three strands: Teachers' Voices,
Frameworks, and Investigations. Each author draws together these strands uniquely, as
suits his or her topic and more crucially his or her point of view. All materials in
TeacherSource have these three strands. The Teachers' Voices are practicing language
teachers from various settings who tell about their experience of the topic. The
Frameworks lay out what the author believes is important to know about his or her topic
and its key concepts and issues. These fundamentals define the area of language teaching
and learning about which she or he is writing. The Investigations are meant to engage
you, the reader, in relating the topic to your own teaching, students, and classroom. They
are activities which you can do alone or with colleagues, to reflect on teaching and learning and/or try out ideas in practice.
Each strand offers a point of view on the book's topic. The Teachers' Voices relate the
points of view of various practitioners; the Frameworks establish the point of view of the
professional community; and the Investigations invite you to develop your own point of
view, through experience with reference to your setting. Together these strands should
serve in making sense of the topic.
In Designing Language Courses: A Guide for Teachers, Kathleen Graves argues for
the central role of teachers in course design and curriculum planning. For those in classrooms, designing language courses is a process that is anchored in students' learning
geared towards distinct ends within a particular context. When teachers approach planning and teaching in such a grounded way, they draw on their rich experiences of practice, animated by reflection and scrutinized through careful analysis. Thus, Graves notes,
"Course design requires teachers to make reasoned choices ... so that they can convert
what they know about teaching and learning languages into a coherent course plan."
Course design and teaching go hand-in-hand as the teacher builds and acts on knowledge
in and from classroom practice.
Throughout the book, Graves eschews the more technical and technicist approaches to
curriculum planning which are well represented in the professional language-teaching literature. While recognizing the value in many of the concepts and models they propose,
she points out that such approaches often depend on having time and access to information and resources which many teachers do not. This fact can disconnect many teachers
from the course design literature. When course design is framed in these terms-things
that they often cannot do-teachers can be alienated from the very processes of conceptualizing, planning, and reflecting which are at the heart of comprehensive and integrative
X •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
thinking about teaching. By refocusing course design on what teachers can-and do-do
as they teach, Graves makes the central point that "teachers are the best people to design
the courses they teach." She thus argues for a more integrated view of course design, one
which blends theory and newly acquired skills with the basic processes of teaching.
This book, like all elements of the TeacherSource series, is intended to serve you in
understanding your work as a language teacher. It may lead you to thinking about what
you do in different ways and/or to taking specific actions in your teaching. Or it may do
neither. But we intend, through the variety of points of view presented in this fashion, to
offer you access to choices in teaching that you may not have thought of before and thus
to help your teaching make more sense.
-
Donald Freeman, Series Editor
SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE •
Xi
1
A SYSTEMS APPROACH
TO COURSE DESIGN
IEIJ Before you read the chapter, complete the following sentence:
Designing a language course involves _ _ .
After you have read the chapter, return to your sentence and consider the relationship between your ideas and the ideas you have read about.
n a sense, this book is my own way of completing the sentence "Designing a
language course involves ... " While I hope that my (rather long) answer is
informative, useful, and thought-provoking, I also hope that you will use your
initial response and, by extension, your own experience, as the filter through
which you decide what is of value to you. Because of the research for this book
and the collaboration with all the teachers whose voices you will hear throughout it, my answer is both more assured and more tentative than it would have
been nine years ago when I first started teaching about course design. More
assured because I know a lot more about the topic; more tentative because the
more I know, the more I see that there are many viable "course designs" and the
less inclined I am to give definitive answers.
I first became interested in the topic of course design because of my experience co-authoring an EFL textbook series for adult learners, East West (1988),
for which my co-author, David Rein, and I had to make decisions about what
should be taught in each level, in what order, and how. Our decisions were based
on our collective experience as teachers and materials developers as well as our
research of other textbooks and literature on course design. Writing a textbook
forced me to be explicit about what I knew and believed about how people learn
languages, in ways that had been implicit in my teaching up to then. The publication of the books, with their tables of contents organized into charts with categories of topics, functions, grammar, vocabulary, culture, and pronunciation,
provided me with a useful credential as an authority on language curriculum
design. These tables of contents seemed a far cry from my previous "output" as
a language teacher: handwritten (this was before personal computers) lesson
plans organized in manila file folders, with after-teaching comments and ideas
scribbled on them; handouts I had prepared for my classes; mimeographed tests.
The relationship between those file folders of lesson plans, handouts, and tests,
and the printed tables of contents of our books did not become apparent until I
later started teaching about course design.
I
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN
°1
I had to organize my thinking about course design when I agreed to teach a
course on it to a group of teachers in 1990. In preparation for teaching my
course I ordered David Nunan's book Syllabus Design (1988) as the course text.
The book had come out two years before, the same year as the first level of East
West, and had provided me with food for thought about how to go about
designing a language course and why. Because I didn't have much lead time to
order the books, there was some anxiety about whether they would arrive in
enough time for me to design course activities around them. Fortunately, they
arrived the week I was to begin teaching the course. However, when I opened
the carton of books for my class, I discovered that the publisher had sent me
instructional manuals for health care workers in rural areas! (I still wonder what
the health care workers did with their books on syllabus design.) While I didn't
see it that way at the time, not having the books as the course began was fortunate because it forced me to ask the teachers in the course to use their own experience teaching language courses as the basis for the first several classes. They
began by making charts of their understanding of the curriculum development
process and drawing up a list of questions they wanted to answer by the end of
the course. The core of the classes became a course that each teacher chose to
design. When the text finally arrived, it provided common terminology for them
to use to describe their experiences, and their questions gave them a reason to
read the book, as well as other resources from a bibliography I had prepared.
I greatly enjoyed teaching the course, although it was something of a roller
coaster, with me trying to anticipate the teachers' needs and do the reading and
research to meet them in a satisfactory way. The range of courses the teachers
chose to design was wide, and I felt I was more helpful to those who chose
courses I knew something about. I became aware of gaps in my understanding,
particularly with respect to needs assessment and the formulation of goals and
objectives. For example, I wasn't able to answer questions such as "How can a
needs assessment tool serve as a learning assessment tool?"
As I set out to deepen my understanding, a few things nagged at me. The first
was that in the published resources on language course design with which I was
familiar, the voices and experiences of the teachers who could make practical
use of the ideas were conspicuously absent. There were plenty of examples from
published material like the EFL series I had co-authored, and from academic
specialists, but there was little from teachers' own accounts. Additionally,
course design tended to be portrayed as a more-or-less systematic process with
results that did not resemble the messy, multi-faceted, two-steps-forward onestep-back process that I had experienced in my own designing of courses and
recognized in that of teachers I worked with. The process had been idealized
into something that made some teachers feel inadequate because they were not
doing things the "right way" and getting the "right results." The reality the
teachers were dealing with was how their manila folders of lesson plans, handouts, and tests could become a coherent course. What they needed was a coherent understanding of how the parts fitted together into a whole. However, the
whole was not a result like the tables of contents of my books, nor was it a unitary, linear process. Rather it was an interrelated set of processes and products,
which I have now come to see as a system.
2•
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
PROCESSES OF COURSE DESIGN
Designing a language course has several components. Classic models of curriculum design as well as more recent models agree on most of the components,
although they may subdivide some of them and give them slightly different
names. These components comprise setting objectives based on some form of
assessment; determining content, materials, and method; and evaluation. The
model I use in this book, which I call a framework, draws on the work of others, as well as my own work. In 1996, when I set out a course development
framework in the book I edited, Teachers as Course Developers (1996), it was a
list of components with questions as a way of explicating them. For example, the
first component was called Needs Assessment, and the accompanying questions
were What are my students' needs? How can I assess them so that I can address
them? The framework in Figure 1.1 is largely the same, with two differences. The
framework is no longer a linear list, but a flow chart, and the processes are
described as verbs, not nouns.
Figure 1.1:
For classic
models see
Stenhouse (1975),
Taba (1962),
Tyler (1949);
for recent models
see Brown (1995),
Johnson (1989),
Nunan (1988),
Richards (1990),
Yalden (1987).
AFramework of Course Development Processes
assessing needs
/
conceptualizing~
content/
~
~fo::Uuiating goals
COURSE
/
organizing
the course \
DESIGN
\ . ... ~
~
\and objectives
J
_/
•
~
developing
materials
designing an /
assessment plan
defining the context
articulating beliefs
~~
By changing the framework to a flow chart I hope to capture two aspects of
course design. The first aspect is that there is no hierarchy in the processes and
no sequence in their accomplishment. As a course designer, you can begin anywhere in the framework, as long as it makes sense to you to begin where you
do. What makes sense to you will depend on your beliefs and understandings,
articulated or not, and the ,reality of the context and what you know about your
students. For that reason, articulating beliefs and defining one's context are on
the bottom of the chart to serve as the foundation for the other processes.
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN •
3
For more on
problematizing,
see Chapter 2,
pages 20-21.
Deciding where to begin will depend on how you problematize your situation, that is, how you determine the challenges that you can most productively
address within the context. This view of the role of the teacher as course designer is captured in Zeichner and Liston's list of features that characterize reflective
teaching. They write that a reflective teacher:
1111
examines, frames, and attempts to solve the dilemmas of classroom practice;
Ill
is aware of and questions the assumptions and values he or she
brings to teaching;
IIIII
is attentive to institutional and cultural contexts in which he or
she teaches;
111
takes part in curriculum development and is involved in school
change efforts; and
Ill
takes responsibility for his or her own professional development.
(Zeichner and Liston 1996 p. 6)
When you design a course, examining, framing, and attempting to solve the
dilemmas of classroom practice become examining, framing, and attempting to
address the challenges of course design. Assumptions and values, which in this
book I call beliefs, are a crucial influence on the way you understand the challenges. Deciding which challenges you can productively address depends on
attention to and understanding of institutional and cultural contexts. These
three characteristics will all help to determine where you choose to begin the
course-design process, which is essentially a reflective and responsive process
of understanding your options, making choices, and taking responsibility for
those choices.
The second aspect captured by the flow chart is to portray a "systems"
approach to course design. The reason you can begin anywhere in the framework is because course development-designing a course and teaching it-comprises a system, the way a forest or the human body is a system (Clark 1997).
This means that the components are interrelated and each of the processes influences and is influenced by the other in some way. For example, if you begin with
formulating goals and objectives, you will need to think about the content you
are teaching. If you begin with designing an assessment plan, you will need to
think about the objectives you are trying to reach and assess. If you begin with
developing materials, you will need to think about what you are trying to teach
and for what purpose.
Course design is a system in the sense that planning for one component will
contribute to others; changes to one component will influence all the others. If
you are clear and articulate about content, it will be easier to write objectives.
If you change the content, the objectives will need to change to reflect the
changes to the content, as will the materials and the assessment plan. If you are
clear about your plan for assessing student learning, it will help you design
appropriate materials. If you change your approach to assessment, it will have
an impact on the content, the objectives, and so on.
4•
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The processes have been changed from nouns to verbs, for example from
"needs assessment" to "assessing needs," in order to portray course design as a
thinking process. I see this as similar to Shulman's idea that good teaching
involves pedagogical reasoning (1987). Pedagogical reasoning means thinking
through how to transform subject matter knowledge into something that can be
taught and learned, which Shulman calls pedagogical content knowledge.
Similarly, course design requires teachers to make reasoned choices about each
of the processes in the framework so that they can convert what they know
about teaching and learning languages into a coherent course plan.
I believe that teachers are the best people to design the courses they teach,
and having the processes expressed as verbs such as "assessing needs" rather
than nouns such as "needs assessment" means that each verb needs a subject. I
see the teacher as the subject of these verbs, taking charge of the processes,
rather than playing the role of recipient of the products. This doesn't preclude
collaborating as much as is feasible and desirable with students, other teachers,
and administrators. In fact, such collaboration is important, because a course is
usually part of the larger system of a curriculum and an institution. Teachers
who teach within explicit curriculum guidelines can be active agents in the
courses they teach if they are clear about what the processes are and how they
can take responsibility for them. For example, it is possible to assess students'
needs as part of teaching.
One of the reasons I started teaching and writing about course design was
because much of the literature about curriculum design portrayed the process as
a logical, rational sequence: conduct a needs assessment; based on the needs
assessment, develop objectives; based on the objectives, select content, and so
on. My experience and research have not been at the level of the overall curriculum of a program, and so I cannot comment on how accurately the literature
captures that reality. However, at the course level, this logical sequence is often
impractical or unproductive and has the effect of making teachers feel that they
are doing something wrong if they don't follow it.
If you take a systems view of course design and see that when you are working on one process, you are in fact working on others, then it becomes a more
feasible process. For example, a clear set of goals and objectives will provide a
framework for both assessment and materials development and thus make both
of those processes easier. Because teachers often have little planning time, it is
important that the process be manageable. Additionally, you may not really be
able to complete one process before doing some work on another. Your goals
and objectives may become clearer once you have begun to organize and
sequence the course. You can then go back to the goals and objectives and refine
them. It's not a question of getting one "right" before moving on to the next.
Because course design is a grounded process in the sense that you design a
course for specific students within a specific context, you can work on more
than one process at once or move between processes within the system and still
be connected to the context. Each of the processes in the flow chart in Figure 1.1
is the basis of a chapter and will be further elaborated there.
See Karen
Johnson's book
in this series,
Understanding
Language
Teaching:
Reasoning in
Action (1999).
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN "
5
avid Thomson is a teacher with experience in Saudi Arabia, Japan, and the
US. He describes the way he used the framework in planning a course on
writing using computers at an Intensive English Program in the United States.
D
David Thomson
The development of goals and objectives came after content had
been created. When I taught the first version of this course, I had
goals and objectives in my head, but never formally wrote them
down .... It felt strange to write goals and objectives after I had
already determined the content. In my previous career prior to
teaching, we determined what the goals would be and then built
a program on that, using the goals as a base. I struggled with this
issue-which element of the Course Development flow chart should
come first-until we were reminded that we should decide for
ourselves where to begin. In a freewriting exercise I wrote that
" ... it has boiled down to the interrelatedness of goals, objectives,
content, and evaluation. There's a chicken-egg scenario and it really
doesn't matter where I start my journey into this course which isn't
a destination but itself a point along the way. It was pointed out
that objectives are not etched in stone and hearing that freed me
to start this trip." As I said, I had already started with content and
could not see any reason to do any dramatic cutting to a course
that I felt "had legs."
PRODUCTS OF COURSE DESIGN
Course or curriculum "products" are the tangible results of the processes in the
framework in Figure 1.1. For example, the actual list of goals and objectives is
the product of formulating the goals and objectives. The activities and materials
designed to assess needs are the products associated with assessing needs. A syllabus is the product of organizing a course. A mind map, grid, or flow chart is
the product of conceptualizing content. Each chapter gives guidelines for producing these products with examples of the products of various teachers in various settings. The teachers also describe their reflections, dilemmas, and decisions
with respect to each process and the resulting product.
The chapters are in an order that makes sense to me. However, my hope is that
you can read the book by beginning with any chapter. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a
foundation for the remaining chapters. Chapter 2 is about defining one's context,
which means being as specific as possible about the students, setting, resources,
and so on. Chapter 3 is about articulating one's beliefs and understandings about
language, social context, learning, and teaching. These two chapters are foundational because they guide the decisions for the other chapters.
Chapters 4 and 5 are about somewhat abstract processes in the sense that you
do not have to factor in "real" time-although you do have to consider students,
purpose, needs, etc. Chapter 4 is about conceptualizing content, which means
making decisions about what is most important for students to learn, given who
the students are and the resources and constraints of the context. Chapter 5 is
about formulating goals and objectives. The remaining chapters result in products
that will actually be used in the classroom, and so have more concrete outcomes.
6•
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Chapter 6 is about assessing students' needs. This process usually comes first
in most books on curriculum design and for good reason: if a course is to be
responsive to students' needs, then needs should be assessed before other decisions are made. I have put it after content and goals and objectives because, in
my experience, the majority of teachers do not have the opportunity to do a precourse needs assessment and so must do needs assessment once they start teaching. Additionally, needs assessment is more effective if you have some idea of
what you want to assess and why, which depends on how you've conceptualized
the content of your course.
Chapter 7 is about organizing the course, which means designing the actual
syllabus so that it fits within the given time constraints. Chapter 8 is about
developing materials. I use the term "developing materials" to include how the
teacher will conduct the classes he or she teaches. This is sometimes referred to
as "methodology" in other frameworks. Chapter 9 is about adapting a textbook. Chapter 10 is about designing an assessment plan, both to assess students'
learning and to evaluate the effectiveness of the course.
DESIGNING A LANGUAGE COURSE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
I.:EJI
Before you read the next section, briefly write down or discuss with a colleague what you think this statement "designing a language course is a work in
progress" means.
ecause it involves human beings, teaching-and the planning and thinking
which are a part of it-is not an enterprise that can be easily quantified, codified, and replicated. Rather, teaching is an organic, unpredictable, challenging,
satisfying, and frustrating process. It is not an imperfect craft, but a dynamic
one. Any activity associated with teaching is in some respect a work in progress
because it will be transformed by those involved in it. The teacher who is formulating objectives for a course will go through a few "drafts" as she tries to
articulate what she wants her students to achieve in the course. They are her reasoned plan for the course based on what she knows about her context. Once she
teaches the course, especially if it is the first time, it is likely that those objectives
will change in some way as she determines their appropriateness for her students. The next time she teaches the course she will be "testing" the modifications to the objectives. The objectives will probably undergo fewer modifications, because the teacher will know more about what she hopes students will
achieve. However, the students will be different and so the teacher may well
want to modify the objectives to make them more responsive to that particular
group. After teaching the course several times, the objectives may change
because of changes in "knowledge in the field" or because of the students. In
his book on curriculum design, The Elements of Language Curriculum,]. D.
Brown gives the example of changes made to a curriculum for a program in
China because the proficiency level of the students changed over time and thus
the objectives needed to reflect those changes (1995).
B
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN "
7
liP!"·---------~
The notion that course design is a work in progress means that it is not a
good use of a teacher's time to try to get each detail of each aspect of a course
"right" prior to actually teaching it. Once "course design meets students" and
the course is underway, it will of necessity be modified. I would go even further
to say that a course in which every aspect is decided and written up is doomed
to fail because it has been done as though what the learners will do with it is predictable. One of the first lessons of teaching that most of us learn with some
pain is that our carefully crafted lesson plans are fragile constructs once in the
classroom, and that attachment to them may cause us to blame the students
when the plans don't work. The lesson plan is not the lesson. The course design
is not the course.
I observed a class in a seminar on "Curriculum and Materials Development"
at Lancaster University taught by Alan Waters who is the co-author of another
book on curriculum design that I admire, English for Specific Purposes (1986).
He used the following diagram, which captures some of the tensions inherent
between designing a course and teaching it.
Nature of Syllabus
Nature of Language Learning
serial/linear
holistic
segmental
developmental
pre-determined (in most cases)
unpredictable
How can a teacher do the preparation needed to produce a syllabus which is, to
a greater or lesser extent linear, segmental, and pre-determined, and still be
responsive to the learning processes of her students which are holistic, developmental, and unpredictable? One way to address the dilemma is to keep in mind
that the plans for one's course are a "work in progress" that will change once
the course is underway.
ris Broudy, a teacher with experience in Vietnam and Mexico, writes about
this tension between wanting to have a "finished product" prior to going into
the classroom, and viewing course design as a work in progress. She is redesigning a course she taught at a University in Orizaba, Mexico, as part of a seminar
on course development.
I
Iris Broudy
I find myself struggling against my nature. My working style
tends to be perfectionistic. When I was a journalist, I would rewrite
a piece as many times as the deadline would allow, refining, finetuning, adding another clever twist or turn of phrase. It is tempting
to treat this course design project similarly. Yesterday I spent a solid
eight hours trying to revise the goals and objectives for my course,
expanding and refocusing, consulting numerous books, even toying
with the idea of changing the whole course.
I
At that point in her planning, Iris and I had a conversation during which I
mentioned that a possible subtitle of this book was "Always a work in progress."
She later writes about her reaction to the title:
8 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Always a work in progress. So never complete. Never perfect.
How could it ever be perfect? Students are not machines,
predictable in their abilities and responses. Each learning context
is different. If my course design is so refined, my objectives so
detailed, my materials so elaborate that nothing is left to chance,
then I am creating a teacher-centered environment in which the
learners are just pawns to be moved about the game board of
curriculum.
She elaborates this further in recalling her experience when she taught the
course she is redesigning.
At the moment, I am still wrestling with a performance demon
that wants control-over the material and the students-in order
to ensure a perfect outcome. I watched it happen [when I taught
the course] .... If I couldn't find an appropriate activity, I would
design my own, often spending hours creating elaborate materials.
These activities didn't always "work" according to plan, however.
When they didn't, I found myself trying to steer the students to
use them "properly," rather than allowing things to emerge from
the material. And if a class wasn't a "success," I concluded that I
wasn't either.
Designing a language course is a work in progress in its whole, in its parts,
and in its implementation. Each aspect of course design, the content, objectives,
needs assessment, materials, and evaluation are works in progress both in their
conception and in their implementation. This does not mean that it is better to
go into the classroom with no plan at all, although in some cases that is possible.
I wouldn't have written this book if I didn't believe in the importance of planning a course. On the contrary, I have found that teachers who carry out the
planning processes of course design are better prepared to let their plans go
because they have thought through the whats, hows, and whys of the course and
are better prepared to pay attention to their students. To me this is analogous to
great conductors who can conduct without a score and pay attention to the
musicians who are playing the music. But they can only do so because they
know the music so intimately that they carry it in their bones.
FROM CONCEPTUALIZATION TO PRACTICE
ll!EJ Conceptual processes are those that involve thinking and planning.
Practice involves implementing the plans. Look at Figure 1.2. Where do you see
conceptual processes taking place? Where do you see practice taking place?
T
he plan or design of the course is not the course, but a part of course development. Course design is part of the complete cycle of course development,
depicted in Figure 1.2, which includes planning the course, teaching it, evaluating it, and replanning it based on the evaluation, and then teaching it again in
the replanned version, and so on. Conceptualization takes place at the first
stage: everything up to actually teaching. Practice is the second phase: teaching
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN
8
9
the course. The third stage could be called "reconceptualization" based on what
was learned while teaching the course. Stage 4 is again practice, and the cycle
continues. Howevet; during "practice," conceptualizing is also going on, because
practice is not simply applying the design, but reshaping it as you go along.
Figure 1.2:
The Cycle of Course Development
Stage 1
Planning the course
For six case
studies of
teachers going
through the
complete cycle,
see Graves
(1996).
\
Stage 2
Teaching the course
This book focuses mainly on Stage 1, the conceptualization part of the cycle,
planning a new course or redesigning one you have already taught. Not all the
examples of teachers' curriculum products have been "tested" in practice, so
we cannot know if they "worked" in practice. However, they are part of a
redesign of a course the teacher had already taught, so she or he had a good
idea of what would work in the context. My hope is that by doing the investigations you will receive enough guidance from them and from the frameworks
to plan your course.
How
TO USE THIS BOOK AS A GUIDE TO DESIGNING
LANGUAGE COURSES
Ultimately, this book is intended to be what its title says: a guide for teachers
who are designing a course. Each chapter includes three elements, common to
all the books in the TeacherSource series: frameworks, teachers' voices, and
investigations. The frameworks provide information and guidelines about what
I think is important for teachers to know about each of the processes of course
design. The teachers' voices provide reflections on how they carried out the
processes, the dilemmas they faced, the decisions they made. The teachers also
provide examples of curriculum products they developed for their courses. The
investigations are a combination of reflective tasks which require thinking
and responding to a question, a framework or a curriculum product; problemsolving tasks which require you to arrive at a solution that makes sense to you;
and product tasks which ask you to design a curriculum product.
In effect, the investigations ask you to "co-author" the book by questioning
and adding to the frameworks and developing your own examples. I strongly
10
°
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
recommend that you, as the reader, choose a course to design, either one you
have already taught and wish to redesign, or one you plan to teach, as the basis
for the investigations. Teachers who work with a predetermined syllabus or
textbook can also carry out the processes within the parameters of the syllabus
or textbook. If you complete all the tasks, you will have the structure of a course
in place. For teachers who are new to teaching and don't feel they know enough
yet to design a course, I suggest using a language course in which you have been
a learner and redesigning that course as though you were the teacher.
EIJ
Choose a course as the basis for your work as you read the book. As suggested above it can be:
11!11
a course you have taught and want to redesign
IIIII
a course you are planning to teach
1111
a course in which you are or have been a learner
I also strongly recommend that you work with a partner or in a group of
three or four. The sociologist, Dan Lortie, in his seminal work Schoolteacher
(1975) describes teachers as teaching in "egg crate schools" (p. 14) because they
are separated in and by their classrooms. While this provides great autonomy, it
also has the effect of "institutionally infantilizing" teachers (Erickson, 1986,
p. 157) so that they have little say in the educational policies that affect their
professional lives. Dialogue among teachers is a crucial step in giving teachers
more power in their professions: it helps teachers to be more aware of their own
practice and how it relates to that of their colleagues.
ne teacher, Denise Maksail-Fine, whose voice we will hear throughout the
book, writes about the importance of collaboration. She began to redesign
a course for the third year of Spanish for high school students, a course she had
already taught for several years and would teach again, in the rural part of
upstate New York where she lived. When she returned home, she hadn't completed the redesign and had difficulty continuing to work on it. She writes:
O
Denise
Maksaii-Fine
I honestly couldn't figure out what my problem was. Just over a
week ago, it finally dawned on me: I was trying to finish this project
in isolation. All of my colleagues here at home were busy dealing
with the insanity that is inherent in the end of the school year. I felt
guilty bothering them for feedback at a time when they were all
dealing with deadlines looming everywhere. Immediately after the
close of the school year, I began consulting my colleagues about my
project. I also interviewed for a new teaching position in which I
was able to field-test some of the components of this course. As a
result, I became incredibly productive. As if by magic, every time I
interacted with others and discussed aspects of this course, it would
all seem to come together. After spending the vast majority of my
A
SYSTEMS APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN •
11
academic training and professional life working in isolation, I am
amazed at the impact that collaboration has had on how I work.
Some of the reflective tasks in the book ask you to react to various curriculum products (e.g., sets of goals and objectives, needs assessment activities) as a
way of arriving at what will work best for you. Talking through your reactions
and hearing others' will help you become clear about your own beliefs about
what is important for your course. Pay attention when you react strongly either
positively or negatively to something another teacher has done or said. It usually means your beliefs are being confirmed or challenged. Likewise, talking
through your curriculum products and answering your colleagues' questions
about them will help you to learn from your colleagues, and to reach greater
clarity about your own work.
lED
Identify one or two colleagues to work with as you design your course. It
is generally preferable to work with someone who is designing a similar course
or working in a similar context and so is familiar with the issues you are facing.
However, working with someone who is unfamiliar with your context can also
be helpful because you will need to be more explicit about what you are doing
and your reasons for doing so.
Suggested Readings
"The Design Solution: Systems Thinking," the second chapter in Edwin Clark's
book Designing and Implementing an Integrated Curriculum: A StudentCentered Approach (1997), was influential in helping me understand course
design as a system. For another view of an interactive approach to course
design, see Alvino Fantini's gemstone model, described in "At the Heart of
Things: CISV's Educational Purpose" in Interspectives: A Journal on Transcultural and Educational Perspectives, Vol. 13, CISV (Children's International
Summer Villages) International, Newcastle, England, 1995.
To extend the argument that teachers are producers and not just recipients of
knowledge, see the first chapter from Donald Freeman's book in this series,
Doing Teacher Research: From Inquiry to Understanding (1999).
For a clear and useful summary of more traditional views of language course
design, see "Curriculum Development in Second Language Teaching," the first
chapter of Jack Richards' book, The Language Teaching Matrix (1990).
12 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
2
DEFINING THE CONTEXT
n a pedagogical grammar course I teach, I begin each unit by asking my graduate students to list questions they have about the focus of the unit. The units
address subjects such as lexicon and phonology. I collect the questions to get a
sense of their concerns and needs so that I can think about how to address them.
The questions are largely about how to teach the subject we are about to study.
Those kinds of questions do not have one answer because the answer will
depend on the context in which the teacher teaches. For example, the answer to
the following question about teaching pronunciation "What is the goal of our
learners, to achieve native-like pronunciation (if we can define what that is) or to
be intelligible?" will depend on the goals of the students, which in turn depend
on the context. At one time I taught students from different countries in a high
school program in the United States; the majority of those students wanted to
sound like their American counterparts. A few years later I taught Japanese
junior college students in Japan; sounding American was not a goal of most of
those students.
The context is a key factor in answering questions like the one above. For this
reason, it is important to define what you know about the context in order to
know how to answer the question. The same is true for designing a course. You
need to know as much as possible about the context in order to make decisions
about the course. The two teachers below illustrate how different the contexts of
teaching English as a second or foreign language can be. The first teacher,
Patricia Naccarato, describes the program in which she taught for two summers.
I
[The context is] a private language school with branches in Florida,
California, and suburban Virginia, outside of Washington D.C.
They recruit international students who come to the United States
for a summer of English study and cultural exchange. The students
range in age from 12 to 18 years and, while in the country, stay in
a homestay situation with a local family. The components of the
program are writing, grammar and conversation. This is the second
summer I have taught the writing component of the program, at
the Virginia site. There is no set curriculum and it is left up to the
teacher to select what they will include, although a book is prbvided. Quite honestly, the people running the school don't seem the
least bit concerned about what I will be doing with the students.
They have assigned a book and are happy to have found a "real"
teacher to teach at least one element of the course.
Patricia
Naccarato
DEFINING THE CONTEXT "
13
The second teacher, Michael Gatto, describes the context for his teaching
practicum at a language institute in El Salvador.
Michael Gatto
Mrs. B., the director, welcomed us and informed me that I would
not be allowed to enter the building again without a tie. She then
plopped three books down in front of me and said in a very serious
tone of voice, "You start teaching tomorrow morning at 8:00. You
will be teaching twenty-three students in the beginning level. You
have one month to finish Units 1, 2, and 3. Don't deviate from this
book. I know that students from [your MA program] like to try
their own things. Don't. We have a method that works for us, so
please follow it. Wear a tie and get a hair cut. See you tomorrow
morning. Don't be late."
These two teachers' brief accounts illustrate not only two kinds of contexts,
but two kinds of responsibilities with respect to designing a course. Patricia has
complete freedom to design her course, which provides its own set of challenges
in that she will have to make all the decisions relating to content and goals,
organization, materials, and assessment. Michael, on the other hand, is expected to follow a prescribed text and methods, another type of challenge in that he
will need to consider how to adapt the text to meet the needs of his students. In
order to meet their respective challenges, each teacher needs to understand the
context so as to work successfully within it. This chapter will address the following questions, What is meant by "context"? and Why is it important to
define one's context?
WHAT
Is
MEANT BY CONTEXT?
Imagine that you are an architect and you have been commissioned to design a
house. Where do you start? Do you start by sketching some designs of houses on
paper? My father-in-law and brother-in-law are both architects. Having watched
them design and oversee the building of houses over the years, I know that if you
have to design a house you don't begin with sketches, because you have no basis
for the design. You begin with specifications. For example, where is the site, how
big is it, what are its particular features? How many people will live in this
house? What are their interests or needs that will affect how they use the house,
the kinds of rooms, and how the rooms relate to each other? What is the budget?
What is the time line? What materials are available locally? And so on.
Designing a course is similar to designing a house. You need to have a lot of
information in order to design a structure that will fit the context. The first
investigation in this chapter is designed to begin the process of outlining the
kinds of information necessary to define the context of a course.
EI!J The investigation will have two parts. You will begin it here and then add
to it after you read the next section.
You and a colleague have submitted a proposal to your local teachers' organization to give a workshop for teachers on course design. You plan to give the
participants in the workshop three descriptions of three different teaching situations. The participants will choose one and use it as a basis for the course plan-
14 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
ning exercises in the workshop. Each description should provide relevant information about the context for the course. Your colleague has begun each of the
descriptions and has asked you to finish them. Choose one of the contexts below
with which you have some familiarity, and list the kinds of additional information you think the participants in the workshop will want to know so that they
can begin to design a course for that context. If you do not have experience with
contexts similar to those described below, choose one you are familiar with,
either as a teacher or a language learner, and write a description of that context.
The focus of the course does not have to be English; it can be another language.
Context #1: Adult education in an ESL setting. There are twenty
five students in the class, fourteen men and eleven women, ranging
in age from 18 to 57. They are immigrants and come from Haiti,
Russia, Poland, and China. They have been in the United States less
than a year. The students are at a low to mid-intermediate level.
Context #2: English for teens at a language institute in their country
(EFL setting). There are 12 students, 5 boys, 7 girls, 13-14 years
old. Class meets in the afternoon for two hours, two days a week,
for 3 months.
Context #3: English for academic purposes course in Canada. The
students are from Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Colombia. They
range in age from 18 to 25. They are taking the course to improve
their writing skills so that they can enroll in courses in the university
in which the ESL program is housed.
T
his investigation is meant to help you think about the information that you
feel is important to have when beginning to design a course. I include it
because whenever I give teachers examples of course design products-for
example, a needs assessment activity, a set of goals and objectives, or a syllabus
plan-they rightfully want to know the answers to questions such as "What is
the level of the students?" "How long is the course" "Where is the course taking
place?" Without that information it is difficult to evaluate the appropriateness
or effectiveness of the product. Course design, like teaching, and like architecture, is a grounded process. This means that when you design a course, you
design it for a specific group of people, in a specific setting, for a specific amount
of time; in short, for a specific context. The more information you have about
the context, the easier it will be for you to make decisions about what to teach
and how. For example, if you are designing an EAP (English for Academic
Purposes) course, you will probably choose one set of topics if the course is for
high school students and somewhat different topics if the course is for adult
postgraduates, although the academic skills in both cases may be similar. On the
other hand, if you are teaching teenagers in a general English course, you may
not focus on academic skills. If your course is an extensive thirty-hour course,
you will make different choices than for an intensive course that meets for sixty
hours. It doesn't mean that each time you teach a similar course you will
redesign it from scratch, even though you teach it to a different group of students. However, you will adapt it to that group.
DEFINING THE CONTEXT •
15
The chart below summarizes the various aspects of context that you can
define: people, time, physical setting, teaching resources, and nature of the
course and institution. Chapter 6, Assessing Needs, addresses the aspects of people and nature of the course and institution in greater depth.
Figure 2.1:
Factors to Consider in Defining the Context
People
Physical setting
students
how many, age, gender, culture(s),
location of school: convenience,
other language(s), purpose(s),
setting
classroom: size, furniture
education, profession, experience,
light, noise
other stakeholders
always same classroom?
school administrators
parents
funders
community
Nature of course and institution
Teaching Resources
type/purpose of course
materials available
mandatory, open enrollment
required text?
relation to current/previous courses
develop own materials?
prescribed curriculum or not
equipment: cassettes,
required tests or not
video, photocopying
clerical support
Time
how many hours total over what span of time
how often class meets
for how long each time
day of week, time of day
where fits in schedule of students
students' timeliness
f.lm In the first part of Investigation 2.1, you completed the description of a
context for a course. Go back to the description. Discuss it with a colleague.
Which factors listed on the chart in Figure 2.1 did you include in your description? Did you include factors that are not on the chart? How would you modify the chart to include your ideas?
harts like the one in Figure 2.1 are meant to serve as tools for you to adapt
to your own purposes and understanding. You may not be able to get all
the information in Figure 2.1 about a given context prior to teaching in it; for
example, you may not know the number of students, and you may not have
C
16 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
information about their cultural backgrounds. You can find this information
during initial or ongoing needs assessment, as outlined in Chapter 6. Some of
the information listed on the chart may be more relevant to one context than
another. For example, information about funders and the community is relevant in an adult education course, but may not be relevant in an English for
academic purposes course.
WHY Is IT IMPORTANT TO DEFINE ONE'S CONTEXT?
The "givens" of one's context are the resources and constraints that guide our
decisions. Knowing how long a course is, its purpose, who the students are, and
how it fits in with other aspects of the curriculum helps us to make decisions
about content, objectives, and so on. One teacher I worked with, David
Markus, tried to design a "contextless" literature course for high school students. He initially thought that it would be easier to design a generic course,
which he could later adapt to a specific high school context. He found the experience very frustrating. He writes:
A few weeks into the process I felt as if I was floundering in a
sea of ideas but had nothing concrete to hang on to. Each time a
new idea came up, I would move in a different direction. At that
point I realized that trying to create a course for a generic situation
complicated the course development process needlessly. Though
each situation has constraints and issues associated with them,
these constraints can provide focus.
David Markus
David's description of how difficult it was to make decisions about his course
illustrates why I suggested in Chapter 1 that when you use this book you do the
investigations with a particular course in mind. Virtually every teacher has had
the experience of planning a lesson that was unrealistic for the time frame, or
unrealistic for the level of the students, or for which the equipment was not
available. Similar challenges face the course designer. A clearer understanding of
what is possible within a given amount of time will allow us to be realistic about
what we-teacher and students-can accomplish. Knowing what equipment or
support is available will help us make choices about how much and what kind
of material to prepare. As David Markus points out, the constraints of our context can actually help us to focus on what is realistic and appropriate and thus
plan for success. Information about time, for example, can help us make decisions about how many areas of content we can realistically address within the
time frame of the course. Information about teaching resources will help us
make decisions about the kinds of materials we choose or develop. The relationship of the course to other courses will help us make decisions about content, so
that we build on previous content. Expectations of the students and stakeholders can help us make decisions about what is appropriate to cover and how students will be assessed.
An Iranian teacher, Ali Pahlavanlu, describes the way in which the stakeholders in his context in a language school in Iran constrained what he could realistically do in his course. Ali taught in a private language institute. His students
were young adult men and women in segregated classes. They were largely from
educated backgrounds, and their parents wanted them to pass a national uni-
DEFINING THE CONTEXT "
17
versity entrance exam called the Concours. The English portion of the exam
focused on grammar and reading skills. Ali wanted to redesign the text used as
the basis for his intermediate level course. The text focused on grammar and
functions, with each unit targeting different grammatical points and functions.
Ali wanted to develop a course that was more integrated and took the students'
interests into account. He writes about how he tried to consider all the contextual factors that could have an impact on the acceptability of his course text:
Ali Pahlavanlu
Creating an ideal course is absolutely out of the question. The conditions in Iran are far less than ideal for EFL teaching. The same
conditions paralyze the course developer. What I have tried to
accomplish is an attempt to consider all those factors involved in
decision making and to create a relatively well-balanced text for my
course which is acceptable under the current conditions ruling Iran.
In Ali's case, the stakeholders played a major role in his decisions about what
was possible with respect to redesigning his course. The stakeholders included
the investor who had put up the money for the school, the license holder who
was licensed by the government to run the school, the religious leaders who
ensured that nothing anti-Islamic or anti-government was allowed, the government officials, who enforced the rule of religion, and the parents, whose aim
was for their children to pass the Concours. Ali knew that for a course to succeed in that setting, it had to be profitable, it had to meet religious codes, and it
had to be geared toward passing the Concours. These constraints forced him to
make choices about what to teach and how to teach it that were often in conflict
with some of the beliefs he held about the nature of language and the purpose of
language learning. Nevertheless, being very clear about the constraints of the
context showed him where he could put his beliefs into operation. For example,
his belief that students are more motivated to learn when they find the topics
meaningful to their lives caused him to switch from the traditional grammarbased syllabus to a topic based syllabus, with functional and grammatical components. He chose the topics based on what he knew about the students, their
age, educational background, and interests.
Most teachers who are in the position to design their own courses and course
materials are not faced with constraints as explicit as the ones Ali faced.
However, having information about the givens of your context-both the constraints and resources-is important because you can use that information to
guide your decisions as you plan the course. The more information you have
about your context the more able you will be to make decisions and to plan an
effective course. It doesn't mean that decisions will necessarily be easier to
make! Returning to the architect analogy, if an architect designs a house that is
too big for the site or beyond the budget of the clients or with material that is
not available, the house will not get built. If you design a course that covers too
much material for the time given, or is built around topics that are inappropriate for your students, or depends on materials that are not readily available to
the students, the course will be ineffective or, at best, require ongoing repair.
Unlike architects, teachers can, to some extent, make the changes in the blueprint as they carry out the course.
18 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Defining one's context can also be viewed as part of pre-course needs assessment. Information about the students and about the curriculum is clearly related to students' learning needs. Other information, such as time and setting, does
not necessarily help define students' language learning needs, but has to be
taken into account in order to design a course that can focus on the needs within the givens of the context. It is similar to what J. D. Brown calls "situational
needs analysis," which pertains to information about a program's "human
aspects, that is, the physical, social and psychological contexts in which learning
takes place" and is related to "administrative, financial, logistical, manpower,
pedagogic, religious, cultural, personal, or other factors that might have an
impact on the program." (1995, p. 40) In Ali Pahlavanlu's case, students' learning needs were not directly shaped by the investors, license holders, and government officials. They were shaped to some extent by parents' demands that the
course help their children pass the Concours and by the religious concerns of
Iranian society. Reconciling competing demands, while difficult, is made easier
when you know what they are.
Ann Leonard, a teacher who designed an EAP course for students in an intensive
English program, writes about her struggle to build a rich definition of context:
It may often be the case that one knows little about a context before
teaching a course. But something to keep in mind is that people
define "context" in various ways. I began very narrow and, as I
continued with this project, quickly learned that to view the context
in the very broadest sense can help one see more clearly further
down the road. Factors that first influenced how much I could plan
my course a priori included: information about the institution, as I
had already taught there; what kinds of students made up the major
portion of the institution's population, including country of origin,
age, and reason for studying English.
See Chapter 6 on
assessing needs.
Ann Leonard
I now recognize the depth of information one can gather that is a
relevant part of the course context and will inevitably inform the
choices that one makes during the course. Some of my discoveries at
various points during the course include: Knowing the students' age
range tells you something about their motivation levels, interest levels, attention spans, and their ability to comprehend themselves on a
meta-cognitive level, just to get started. And what factors about the
course are going to influence material you can conceivably cover?
How the particular course fits into the scheme of the entire program
can help you avoid any redundant course content later on ....
In my situation the total number of hours was also a pivotal factor:
in that amount of time I was extremely limited as to what I could
cover and what the students could be expected to produce.
t is also true that you may be asked to design a course and not have much
information about the context. I have three pieces of advice. The first is to try
to get as much information as possible by asking for it specifically or by trying
to find others who have taught in that context. If available, printed material prepared for the students (brochures, catalogues) is a helpful source of information
I
DEFINING THE CONTEXT •
19
since students' expectations may be based on what they find there. Talk to students who have taken the course or teachers who have taught it. Ask for information as though you were a student. The second is to design the course with a
similar group in mind, if you have knowledge of such a group, so that you are
not stymied when making decisions, as David Markus initially was when he
tried to design his literature course for any group of high school students. The
third is to work into your course design process flexibility so that you have more
than one option at each step of the way. For example, you can develop a menu
of possibilities (topics, tasks, materials) from which to choose as you know your
students and your context better. A good example of this approach can be found
in Carmen Blyth's (1996) account of designing an EAP course for Ecuadorian
students in which she outlined inventories of academic tasks, skills, and materials which she had taught or used in past EAP courses and from which she was
able to select once she started teaching in Ecuador.
Consider the course you identified in Investigation 1.4 as the basis for this
investigation.
1. Using the chart in Figure 2.1, make a list of all the information you have
about the context for your course.
2. Add information that occurs to you that is not on the chart. Make a list
of information you would like to obtain.
3. Discuss your list with a colleague and brainstorm (make a list without
evaluating each item on the list) ways to obtain the information you
don't have.
4. Follow through on one or two of the ways for obtaining the information
(e.g., interviewing teachers with experience with such courses, calling a
school or institute that offers similar courses and asking for information,
sitting in on a similar course). Report back to your colleague.
PROBLEMATIZING
Defining your context is an important step in problematizing your course. The
term problematizing comes from Paulo Freire (1973 ). It means looking at something that is taken for granted-literacy, for example-and taking it apart to
understand it, challenge it, and act on it. I use problematizing to mean looking
at what you know about the context and defining the challenges you feel you
need to and are able to meet in order to make the course successful. These challenges may involve class size, multi-levels, number of hours, lack of resources,
your own lack of experience with the content of the course, and so on.
Problematizing is rooted in the assumption that the teacher who teaches the
course is the best equipped to understand its challenges and to mobilize the
resources available to meet those challenges. It is also based on my belief that
there is not one way or "best way" to design a course. Rather, the course must
20
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
064025
work within the givens of the context and make use of the skills that the teacher
brings to the course. For example, Lu Yuan, a teacher who taught Chinese to
university exchange students in an immersion program in China, grappled with
how to design her course so that she could make use of the world outside of the
classroom as an integral part of the course. This became a key challenge that
influenced her design of materials and course organization. Whenever her students learned an aspect of grammar, a function, or vocabulary items, they were
given a task that required them to use the new aspect of language outside of
class and then report back to class on what they encountered and what they
learned. In designing his history of American literature course for high school
students, David Markus at first followed the kind of syllabus the high school
used: a chronological survey of American literature. He wasn't satisfied with
this approach. When he problematized his situation he realized that his challenge was how to provide enough time and depth in the course for students to
really understand the literature, while still covering a broad spectrum of the literature. Defining the challenge helped him to produce a solution: a syllabus
based on themes in the literature.
Problematizing helps you decide where to start and what to focus on in planning the course. The more information you have about the context, the more
apparent the challenges will be, and the better you will be able to define and
address the challenges as you design and teach the course. Problematizing is
about making choices for action. A given course can be designed and taught in
any number of ways. You need to make decisions about how you will design the
course, based on what you know about your context.
Patricia Naccarato described some features of her context in the beginning of
the chapter on page 13. Her experience provides another example of how problematizing shapes one's approach to designing a course. The curriculum had
three components, grammar, conversation, and writing, each taught by a different teacher. She taught the writing component. She taught the course the first
summer and was dissatisfied with it. In order to redesign it for the next summer,
she problematizecl her situation. She didn't simply want to find another textbook or reorganize the syllabus. She wanted to figure out what hadn't worked.
She was able to identify three main challenges that she felt she needed to meet in
order to plan and teach a successful course. The first had to do with the subject
matter, the second with the students, and the third with logistical factors. The
first was how to improve the students' writing skills without being overly academic and boring. The second was how to deal with intercultural conflicts among
students. The third was how to integrate students who arrived days or weeks
late clue to visa, school schedule, or transportation problems.
In relation to the first challenge, how to work on writing, she says,
The students seemed to feel last summer that the "school" element
of their summer in the United States was the least important and,
most definitely, the least interesting. They were in the United States
mostly as a vacation, and the few hours spent in the classroom
every morning were an inconvenience, at best. I tended to
sympathize with them to the extent that I found myself trying to
make the classes "fun" at the expense of their learning.
INFORMACION
For David Markus'
description of
the syllabus see
page 33.
Patricia
Naccarato
DEFINING THE CONTEXT.
21
Patricia realized that the challenge here was not simply to develop a set of "fun"
activities, but to provide opportunities to learn writing skills in ways that the
students found interesting.
In relation to the second challenge, how to deal with intercultural conflicts
among students so that they could carry out the group work that she felt was
crucial to learning, she says:
The conflicts among the students were at times quite volatile.
All the students came to us with a very strong sense of national
pride. This created clashes and polarization that I, as the teacher,
found difficult to bridge. I feel that only by addressing these issues
directly, will we be able to get past them to reach a point where
the students can comfortably work together.
In relation to the third challenge, how to integrate students who arrived late,
she says,
I want each student to feel that he or she is an integral member
of the class whether they arrive on day one or day 15 of the
overall program.
The challenges she defined guided her decisions in designing the course for
the second summer. She resolved the first challenge of teaching writing skills in
an interesting way by focusing on a specific writing skill each week, having students keep portfolios of their work, with the goal of having each student contribute to a class newsletter, to be published at the end of the course for the students to take home with them.
I think that by working on a product wherein they can express
themselves and have something to show for their summer's time in
the classroom, they will be more motivated to do the work necessary to create a finished product they will be proud of.
She resolved the second challenge by designing activities that enabled students
to talk about their cultures and learn from each other. She addressed the third
challenge by having students who were there from the beginning brainstorm
what the late-arriving students would need to know and do to fit into the class,
and then develop activities accordingly.
Not every teacher has the freedom to create a course from scratch that
Patricia Naccarato had. Many teachers teach with a syllabus that is part of a set
curriculum within a specified period of time, as was the case with Michael Gatto
in El Salvador (see page 14). Or, as in Ali Pahlavanlu's case in Iran (see page 18),
teachers may have to develop a curriculum that is governed by economic, religious and legal factors. To continue the analogy with building a house, teaching
within a prescribed curriculum and exam system is similar to working with an
already developed blueprint. While the teacher may not be able to design the
blueprint for the house/course, she can learn to adapt it or some aspect of it to
the particular needs of her students.
Although the challenges may arise more in the actual teaching stage than in
the designing stage of the course, it is nevertheless important to understand the
context well enough to know how to work within it. Problematizing is one way
22 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COlJRSESf
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
for teachers to "bite off what they can chew" and assume control of some aspect
of their course. In Michael Gatto's case, as we shall see in Chapter 9, this meant
varying the order and ways in which he covered the material in the textbook unit.
In other words, armed with a solid understanding of your context, you can define
a challenge that you have some control over and can generate a means to address.
Look over the information about your course context from Investigation
2.2. Does anything stand out that will be a major resource or constraint in developing your course? Can you identify particular challenges that you will need to
address in order to design a successful course?
To return to the analogy with designing a house, if the site for the house has
particular problems associated with it, such as poor drainage, they must be
accounted for in the design or there will be continual problems with the house.
On the other hand, if there are particularly spectacular features of the site, such
as a beautiful view, it makes sense to take advantage of them. By defining your
context and the challenges it presents, you put yourself in a position to take
advantage of the resources of the context and your own internal resources of
common sense and creativity.
DEFINING THE CONTEXT •
23
3
ARTICULATING BELIEFS
S
ome years ago I taught a beginning Chinese class. There were fifteen students
in the class. I had them do a lot of work on pronunciation so that they would
feel confident when speaking. I used a variety of techniques in which the students listened to each other and to me, and worked individually to produce the
correct sounds. In a feedback session in which I asked students to discuss what
was and wasn't effective in helping them learn in the course, one student asked
me why I didn't conduct choral repetition drills. I told him that I was concerned
that such drills-in which students repeat sentences after the teacher in chorus,
over and over again-usually involved mechanical and mindless repetition
which I thought resulted in little learning of the pronunciation. He explained
that he liked such choral repetition because it enabled him to practice the new
sounds anonymously without fear of making mistakes. Other students agreed
that they felt as he did and would benefit from such drills. After that discussion,
choral repetition drills became a part of the classroom repertoire.
The story about the Chinese class can help to illustrate the complex nature of
the beliefs and understandings that guide a teacher. I knew that learning to speak
a language involves learning how to pronounce its sounds. In the case of
Chinese, learners often have the expectation it will be difficult to speak and to
pronounce. I wanted to demystify this aspect of Chinese by having students feel
comfortable with the pronunciation early on. I had a strong belief that teacherled choral repetition drills were not conducive to learning. This belief was based
on experience as a learner in high school when I would happily tune out during
drills in German class. It was based on subsequent readings about, and philosophical disagreement with, the behaviorist principles of Audiolingualism, for example
that learning was habit formation and language was learned through mimicry
(Brown 1994). Additionally, in the institutional setting in which I worked,
drilling was regarded as outdated and unproductive. Another reason I didn't like
to use drills was because I had to play the role of drill master, which did not
allow for student choice.
The role of drill master was also in conflict with other strong beliefs I held:
that different students learn in different ways, and that students should learn to
direct their own learning. My beliefs about student responsibility and choice
prompted me to conduct regular feedback sessions in which students discussed
what was and wasn't helping them to learn in the class. I believed that such discussions helped them become aware of how they learned. The information gathered in these sessions also helped me to make decisions about how to adapt the
ARTICULATING BELIEFS •
25
In this book,
you will hear
teachers refer to
their beliefs as
either beliefs,
principles, or
precepts.
26 •
class to meet students' needs. The students' reasons for wanting choral repetition drills made sense to me. They wanted to use the drills attentively and not
mechanically. I could see that the anonymity would in fact help them feel comfortable making the new sounds of Chinese and thus contribute to their learning. I was still uncomfortable in the role of drill master, but I was able to let go
of my own antipathy toward the drills in response to their needs.
Beliefs are not necessarily something that teachers can easily articulate or are
completely aware of (Johnson 1998). Most teachers don't have opportunities to
make their beliefs explicit because the institutions in which they work do not
generally ask them to articulate their beliefs nor do they place a value on such
articulation. However, the more aware you are of your beliefs the easier it is to
make decisions, or at least to know why you are making the decisions as in the
Chinese class above.
To understand where beliefs come from you need to look at your past experience and the beliefs about learning and teaching that grow out of and guide that
experience. Experience includes your education and its discourse. I mean discourse in Gee's (1990) sense of the way one learns to think, speak and act and
what one learns to value in a given setting such as a school. In my case, my experience in high school as a learner with drills was not positive. When I first started teaching, however, I used drilling extensively both because it was what I had
known as a learner and because that was a prevalent method at the time. Later
in graduate school, a methods course helped me understand the theoretical basis
for drills as a form of teaching and also why drilling had not worked for me in
high school. Moreover, my professors advocated-and practiced-helping students take responsibility for their learning, which helped to shape my beliefs.
Beliefs also arise from work experience and the discourses of the workplace,
what you feel constitutes success and "works" in each setting, what you perceive to be important or necessary or "the way things are done." In my case in
the Chinese class, my colleagues would have felt that a teacher who used drills
was taking the responsibility for learning away from her students. Finally, your
ongoing professional development-readings, presentations, or courses can
influence your beliefs. All of these influences-as a learner, as a teacher, as a colleague-provide the basis for your understanding of how languages are taught
and learned and the beliefs that guide your choices.
The process of designing a course is one way in which you can learn to understand and articulate your beliefs, because those beliefs provide a basis for making choices. When I teach course design the question of choices always arises.
"There are too many choices! How can I decide?" "Did I make the right
choice?" "What is the right choice?" "Is there a right choice?"
In fact there are multiple possibilities, multiple justifications, and multiple
answers. I tell teachers that I don't have an answer to give them, but there is an
answer for them to find. The answer they choose depends on the context, on
their experience, and on their beliefs and understandings. Ann Leonard writes
about the way that her beliefs helped her to make choices as she designed a reading and writing course:
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The phrase "You have to make decisions and justify them," was
made, and often repeated, in response to a tendency during the
course design process to get stuck on one product or one component. I was often in this dilemma .... Whenever I found myself
spending too much time over a decision, or lamenting too many
choices, I would remember this phrase, and it forced me to stop and
look at what I had for the moment, and to rationalize and justify
these choices. I began to understand that more is not necessarily
better, and that one aspect of designing a course is having the
confidence in one's principles and experience to make decisions.
Ann leonard
m
Think of a language lesson you observed, took part in, or taught, that you
thought was an excellent lesson. Imagine that after the lesson you run into a colleague who asks you "How was the lesson?" You respond that it was a great lesson. The colleague says, "Oh, really? What made it so great?" Explain in as
much detail as possible why you thought it was a good lesson.
The way you answer the question in this Investigation is a means of getting at
what you feel is important in teaching and learning a language. What you feel is
important is based on your understandings of how people learn languages and
the beliefs you hold about language teaching that stem from those understandings. For example, let's suppose the lesson took place in a class for adult learners.
The learners were comparing different letters to the editor taken from the local
newspaper. The letters were written in support of (or against} candidates in
forthcoming elections. The students were working in small groups to figure out
how the candidates differed. I might say that one thing that made the class great
was that students had an opportunity to do a problem-solving activity in small
groups that required the use of the target language. Answering the question
"Why did that make the lesson 'great'?" would help me to uncover some of my
beliefs about learners' and teachers' roles in the classroom and how language is
learned. I might say that problem solving as a way of learning requires learners
to negotiate with each othet; which stands in contrast to a way of learning in
which learners receive knowledge from the teacher which they then memorize or
internalize. When problem solving in the target language, learners are required
to use the language they know and adapt it to the communication needs of the
situation. When working in small groups, learners are usually more likely to participate because they feel less "on the spot" than in a large group and because
there are fewer people. Responses such as these can help me arrive at what I feel
is important, what I believe, about how people learn language.
0
ne framework for sorting out your beliefs is Stern's framework, which he
outlines in his books Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching (1983)
and Issues and Options in Language Teaching (1992). He proposes that any theory of language teaching needs to address the concepts of languag~, society (or
social context}, learning, and teaching.
ARTICULATING BELIEFS •
27
" ... there are four concepts which are treated as fundamental, and
not simply one. Time and time again language teaching has fallen
into the trap of making a single belief, concept, or principle paramount, with a resulting loss of perspective." (1992, p. 23)
I would like to look at each one of these concepts in turn. One caveat is that
the boundaries between them are very often blurred because they are all dealing
with how people learn languages and you are likely to find that some of your
beliefs lie in more than one category.
&J
Look over the following framework (Figure 3.1 a) and note what you
think each category means. Then make a list of possible examples to illustrate
each category.
Figure 3.1a:
AFramework for Articulating Your Beliefs
1. Your view of language
2. Your view of the social context of language
3. Your view of learning and learners
4. Your view of teaching
BELIEFS ABOUT LANGUAGE
Your view of what language is or what being proficient in a language means
affects what you teach and how you teach it. Language has been defined in
many ways, for example as pronunciation, grammar, lexis, discourse (Bailey
1998), or as form, meaning and use (Larsen-Freeman 1990). Models of communicative competence which include grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and
strategic competences have outlined what it means to be proficient in a language
(Canale and Swain 1980; Omaggio Hadley 1993.)
Your beliefs about which view of language should be emphasized will translate into beliefs about how the language should be learned. An emphasis on language as rule-governed may translate into the belief that learning a language
means learning to use it accurately, with no grammatical errors. To return to the
example of a class of adult learners, a good lesson might have students analyze
the grammatical errors in letters they had written to the editor and then correct
the errors. An emphasis on language as meaning-based may be manifest in the
belief that language in the classroom should be relevant and meaningful to the
students in the class. A good lesson might have the students write a letter about
issues that affect them. An emphasis on language as socially constructed among
people in discourse communities may be manifest in the belief that learning a
language requires an awareness of how language is used within a given community such as the classroom or neighborhood. A good lesson might have students
compare two sample letters to the editor and determine which social factors
accounted for the difference. It is possible to imagine the three lesson scenarios
above taking place with the same group of learners, and, in fact, you may hold
all three beliefs.
28 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
BELIEFS ABOUT THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE
In Stern's view, society, which he also refers to as "social context," encompasses sociolinguistic, sociocultural, and sociopolitical issues in language teaching.
Sociolinguistic issues bridge language and social context in that they are concerned with how language is adapted to fit (or not) the social context. A nonnative English speaking graduate student once began a letter to one of her professors to request a recommendation with "I need a letter of recommendation
for_. Please write me a recommendation and send it to . .. "Grammatically
and lexically, the request was accurate; however it was not appropriate for the
purpose or for her relation to the receiver of the request. An emphasis on the
sociolinguistic aspect-that language cannot be separated from the context in
which it is used-may translate into the belief that learning a language means
learning how to adjust it to contextual factors such as roles and purpose. A
good lesson might have students examine different ways to begin and end letters depending on the purpose for the letter and the person to whom it was
being sent.
Sociocultural issues are concerned with the interaction between language
and culture. They include different dimensions of culture such as social values
(e.g., gender differences) attitudes (e.g., toward roles of men and women)
norms (e.g., ways of greeting, eating), customs (e.g., marriage customs), and
"products" (e.g., literature, art). A belief related to sociocultural issues would
be that language learning involves understanding both one's own culture and
that of the target language because attitudes one holds may be different or even
in conflict with those held by some users of the target language. A good lesson
might have students discuss the cultural values implicit in sending letters to the
editor, and their own comfort level with doing so.
Sociopolitical issues are concerned with how a given language or social
group (ethnic, gender, etc.) is viewed by other social groups, access to language
and services, and a critical awareness of how language is used. The beliefs that
learners need to know how to participate in the community and that language
teaching involves helping learners gain access to social systems are both related
to sociopolitical issues. A good lesson that stems from these beliefs might have
students write a letter to the editor about an issue that affects them, in which
they outline action that can be taken to address the issue. The belief that language learning involves analyzing the way in which language is used to gain,
hold, and deny power could be manifest in a lesson in which students analyze
the point of view of a newspaper story about a topic that affects them and
decide how to respond.
BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING AND LEARNERS
I think the fundamental issue around learning is your view of how people learn
and the roles that enable them to learn. In my experience, teachers can hold
seemingly contradictory beliefs about the process, the roles, and the focus of
learning and accommodate them in the classroom to some extent. In the Chinese
class I described at the beginning of the chapter, my belief in students' taking
responsibility for the direction of their learning conflicted with the practice of
repetition drills, in which the students follow the teacher's lead.
ARTICULATING BELIEFS •
29
Regarding the process, learning can be perceived as a process of problem
solving and discovery by the learner-an inductive process. The learner is
viewed as a maker of knowledge. In contrast, learning can be perceived as the
process of applying received knowledge-a deductive process. The learner is
viewed as an internalizer of knowledge. Learning can be viewed as a cognitive
process, involving mental activity, an affective process, involving emotional connection and risk taking, and a social process, involving learning with others
(Stevick 1998). Learning can be viewed as involving different intelligences such
as visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and so on. (Gardner 1983). Regarding the roles
of learners, learning may depend on individual effort in which the learner works
alone. It may also depend on a group effort in which learners learn with and
from each other. Learners may be the source of expertise or the recipients of it.
They may be partners and decision-makers in the process or subordinates.
Regarding the focus of learning, it may be acquiring new knowledge, mastering
skills, developing awareness, or learning about attitudes. It may focus on how
the language works or on using the language. It may focus on the development
of metacognitive and critical thinking skills.
Some questions about learning and learners might be: Do learners learn better when they can discover their own answers or when they are given the correct answers? When they feel secure or when they are challenged? Individually
or through interaction with others? Is the learner an expert? Is the learner a
partner in the learning process? If you hold the belief that learners learn best
when they feel secure, then a good lesson might have students first discuss the
content of their letters to the editor in small groups prior to discussing them in
the large group.
BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING
Beliefs about teaching and the role of the teacher are connected to beliefs about
learning, although this is an area in which what a teacher does is sometimes in
contradiction to what he believes, or professes to believe. The process of teaching can be viewed on a continuum in which at one end the teacher transmits
knowledge to the students, and at the other end the teacher and students negotiate the knowledge and skills and methods of learning. On the one end the
teacher makes decisions about knowledge and skills to be learned, tells the students what to learn, or provides models or examples and expects or helps students to internalize them. As we move up the continuum, the process is viewed
as providing problem-solving activities and actively helping students to negotiate them; learning may be viewed as a process of shared decision making with
the students. Still further along the continuum, students determine the problems
to be solved and use the teacher as a language and culture resource.
Some questions about teaching and the role of the teacher might be: Is the
teacher the expert? Is the role of the teacher to provide answers or is it to provide structures for finding answers? Does the teacher make all the decisions or
does she negotiate decisions with the learners? Is the teacher a collaborator in
students' learning? Is the teacher a learner? If you hold the belief that the teacher
30 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
should negotiate decisions with the learners because learning involves responsibility, then a good lesson might have the learners decide how to respond to an
issue they had identified.
&I
In Investigation 3.2 you used the framework in Figure 3.1a to organize
and write down your own ideas. Compare your ideas with those in the framework in Figure 3.1 b below. Discuss the differences and similarities with a partner. Which areas overlap? What would you add to the framework below? To
your own framework?
Figure 3.1b:
AFramework for Articulating Your Beliefs
1. Your view of language
For example, language is rule governed, meaning-based, a means of
self-expression, a means of learning about oneself and the world, a
means of getting things done.
2. Your view of the social context of language
For example, the social context of language includes sociolinguistic
issues such as adapting language to fit the context, sociocultural
issues such as cultural values and customs which may be in harmony
or in conflict with those of the learners' own culture, and sociopolitical
issues such as access to work and education.
3. Your view of learning and learners
For example, learning is a deductive or inductive process; learning
occurs in community or individually; learning is the acquisition of
knowledge and skills; learning is the development of metacognitive
and critical thinking skills.
Learners have affective, cognitive and social needs; learners receive
knowledge or construct knowledge; learners follow directions or direct
their own learning.
4. Your view of teaching
For example, teaching is knowledge transmission, management of
learning, providing of learning structures, a collaborative process.
The teacher is a decision maker, knowledge transmitter, provider
of learning structures, collaborator, resource.
OJ In Investigation 3.1, you made a list of what made a particular lesson great.
Look through your list and categorize your responses according to whether they
involve a view of language, of the social context of language, of learners and learning, or of teaching. Is one category more prominent than another?
ARTICULATING BELIEFS •
31
AN
EXAMPLE OF A TEACHER'S BELIEFS
Denise Lawson is a teacher who designed an advanced writing course for a university extension program in the United States. Three factors influenced her
beliefs: her experience as a learner, her experience as a teacher and how the students responded to her and each other, and understandings from readings.
Certain authors and readings as well as a presentation on the significance of
sociocultural issues in writing in a second language were particularly influential
in helping her understand what she felt was important. The following are her
teaching beliefs and what each of them mean for her teaching and for the course:
Learner-centered curriculum
Development of a community of learners who support each other's
learning process; emphasis on cooperation in place of competition;
student participation in course content, process, and assessment;
use of feedback as a means of course evaluation
Denise Lawson
Meaning-centered curriculum
Development of course content relevant to students' needs and interests;
incorporation of sociocultural issues of second language learning
Process-centered curriculum
The five steps
in the process:
brainstorm,
draft, revise,
edit, publish.
Use of five step process writing model; use of self-assessment as well as
assessment by peers and teacher; final assessment based on progress,
participation, and performance
Clear articulation of roles of teacher and students
111
Students as managers of their own learning (via learner strategy
training), and as resources for their peers
111
Teacher as curriculum designer and articulator of goals and objectives,
enthusiast, resource, coordinator of class activities, participant in
assessment process, and co-learner
!ED
Which of the four categories, language, social context, learning, teaching
are addressed in Denise Lawson's beliefs? How? If you were designing a writing
course, would you change the list or add to it? What does this tell you about
your beliefs?
m
Brainstorm an initial list of your beliefs that you feel are relevant to the
course you are designing. You can write them as they occur to you or you can
list them according to the categories in Figure 3.1 or you can use the triangle in
Figure 3.2. At this point you do not need to worry about having too many or
too few. The point of the investigation is to begin to articulate relevant beliefs.
They will be refined later.
32 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 3.2: David Hawkins' Elements of Teaching
IT
(teacher)
(subject matter)
Figure 3.2 is drawn from the work of educator David Hawkins (1967). The
triangle is a visual way of representing the same elements of teaching Stern proposes. I refers to the teacher. Thou refers to the learners. It refers to the subject
matter. My colleague, Carol Rodgers, has added the circle of context which
represents the environment in which the teaching takes place. You can note
your beliefs about the teacher and teaching, learners and learning, subject matter, and context, as well as their relationships, on the visual itself, or you can
use it as a trigger.
How Do
BELIEFS AFFECT THE ACTUAL DESIGNING OF A COURSE?
Your beliefs play a role at each stage of course design. They may not always be
present in your thinking, but they underlie the decisions you make. David
Markus designed a history of American literature course for high school students studying English in the United States. He writes about the way his beliefs
influenced the course.
As I approached the course development process I had certain
beliefs that helped me decide what was important to focus on.
These personal values were not always in the forefront of my thinking, but at certain places in the project, I would return to them to
assess how my course design incorporated these principles. If I
found that I had strayed, I would revise the plan so it coincided
with those principles.
We first hear
David Markus's
voice in
Chapter 2.
David Markus
David returns to his beliefs at a later point in the process, as a way to help him
organize the content of the course.
After deciding on goals and objectives for the course, I was ready
to decide on a syllabus and some principles for course organization.
It was at this point that I reminded myself that my original goal
was to create a course that was based on certain educational beliefs
I held. In the first few stages of curricular development, I had paid
very little conscious attention to these principles since my first
ARTICULATING BELIEFS "
33
instinct was to get a firm grip on what I was going to teach and
then move to the how. Over the years, I have come to believe in
a few principles of education that I try to incorporate into any
class I teach.
The first precept comes from Smart Schools by David Perkins.
He talks about the need to trade coverage for a focus on understanding and active use of knowledge. (1995, p. 164) In the past,
St. Andrew's English department has tried to cover the history
of American literature in 4 months in chronological fashion.
The students feel that they are moving on a train that begins in
the Colonial Period and ends in the Present day, but they only get
a glimpse of the landscape whizzing by them. There is little time
to apply lessons learned in one section to what they are going to
encounter in a future section. For this course to live up to my
standard of depth and active application of knowledge, I knew
I would have to cut something out of the curriculum.
A change from a chronological syllabus to a thematic syllabus
seemed to be the solution. This would make the connections from
different time frames more explicit, but also give the students the
opportunity to make some of the connections themselves. When I
inquired whether I would be able to teach the course in this fashion,
the English department chair gave lukewarm support for the idea.
She agreed that the old syllabus skimmed over the content, but also
expressed concern that the students would not be able to put the
literature in historic context. I assured her that the class would
consistently keep the historic context in mind through a timeline
that they would be responsible for updating throughout the term
as we read new authors.
A second key educational precept that I wanted to include in the
design was the idea of student choice. The complaint in the past was
that students did not seem interested in the books that were taught.
I believed if students had a choice of materials (with some structure
provided by the teacher) they would choose good literature that
would be interesting for them. Just the investment that is inherent
in choice would suggest this, but I believed that they would also
choose themes that have personal significance for them. This
principle of student choice can even be applied to organization
of the course and classroom rituals.
From this belief in choice, I decided that the students would not
only get to choose some of the readings in a theme, they would get
to choose two of the three themes. This would help individualize
instruction and to a certain extent allow us to deal with the
coverage issue through the back door of literature response groups,
where students discuss different readings. (This also prevents students who may have had different exposure to American literature
from being made to read a book or story for a second time.)
34 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Hand in hand with the belief in student choice is a belief that
the teacher needs to provide support and structure within which
students work and learn. This idea derives from Stevick's concept of
the balance between control and initiative (Stevick 1998, p. 31-35.)
All students can feel safer in an environment where they know the
rules and know what to expect. Having an organization keyed to
the weekly or daily schedule provides them with advanced organizers that help LEP (limited English proficiency) students focus mainly
on the language. The use of daily and weekly rituals also saves time
in transitions. This is important since Saphier and Gower (1987)
estimate that up to 25% of class time can be wasted each day in
transitions. Based on these assumptions I decided to have certain
constant ritual-like activities as a part of this course.
David Markus has articulated beliefs about the teacher's role, about student
choice, and about learning, which he views as the understanding and active use
of knowledge. Each of these beliefs has helped him make key decisions about the
content and organization of his course. Earlier in this chapter, Denise Lawson
articulated four main beliefs that guided her planning of an advanced composition course: her belief in a learner-centered curriculum, a meaning-centered
curriculum, a process-centered curriculum and her belief that the roles of
teachers and learners should be clearly articulated. She then explained what
each belief meant. Both of these teachers have articulated rich and powerful
beliefs that had important implications for how each designed his or her course.
They both "boiled" their beliefs down to a few essential ones that they felt were
key to their particular courses. They may have had other beliefs, but chose to
focus on only a few that they considered essential. These became their core
beliefs or principles.
Articulating a belief requires clarity about the experience from which it is
drawn, and about the knowledge base that provides the language in which to
express it. It is not always easy to identify these beliefs. Iris Broudy, a teacher
whose voice we first heard in Chapter 1, expresses the challenge of identifying
her beliefs this way: "I find myself struggling to sort out what I really believe
about my course from what seems like a good idea (based on theory, examples
from books, etc.)." There are a lot of good ideas to draw from, and it is important to be clear about their relevance to those core beliefs that will guide you in
your particular context.
An image that captures what is meant by a core belief or principle is one provided by a former president of my university in a welcoming speech to our students. He talked about burning wood in a campfire and how the last and brightest to burn were the nodes in which the sap had gathered, sap from all parts of
the tree. Identifying the core principles for a given course is akin to finding the
nodes with the sap in them. A core belief or principle will carry within it elements of other beliefs you hold. Don't overwhelm yourself with too many
beliefs, but look to the ones that you feel essential. Your essential beliefs are the
nodes where the sap has gathered.
See page 32.
ARTICULATING BELIEFS "
35
Look over your initial list of beliefs. Choose the four that are the most
important-the ones you feel you could not sacrifice, no matter what the constraints of your context. Now, look over the description of your context
(Chapter 2). Do you see ways in which your beliefs can support the context? Do
you see any potential conflicts? Problematize your situation-identify some of
the potential challenges that designing your course will pose. Do you see some
ways to meet the challenges?
See page 12.
Throughout this book, you will see references to teachers' beliefs and principles and how they influenced the choices they made. Your own beliefs will play
a role in the way you react to the reflections and decisions the teachers made. As
mentioned in Chapter 1, your reactions will provide clues to your beliefs. If you
feel strongly that something is missing, you are uncovering or articulating a
belief. Conversely, the same is true if you really like something a teacher has
done. I made an analogy between course context and architecture in Chapter 2.
Two architects given the exact same specifications will design different houses.
Each house will exhibit certain fundamental similarities based on fundamentals
of architecture such as providing shelter, having a roof and a floor, letting in
light, providing places to eat, sleep, and so on. If they both went to the same
design school and had the same professors, it is likely there will be similarities in
their designs. However, they will both be different in ways that range from small
to striking. Similarly, two teachers asked to design the same course for the same
students will design different courses because of differences in their experience,
education, and beliefs. The courses will need to account for how language is
dealt with, how the four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening are
integrated or isolated, the roles learners are asked to take, how learning is
assessed, and so on. However, they will both be different in ways that range
from small to striking. How much a house bears the architect's individual
imprint depends on how much freedom he or she had in designing the house.
The best houses, however, marry the architect's imprint with the needs of those
who will eventually live in the house. So, too, your course design should marry
your beliefs with the needs of the students within the context of the course.
Suggested Readings
Earl Stevick's ideas in Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways (1980) and later in
Working with Teaching Methods: What's at Stake (1998, in this series) have
been particularly helpful to me in articulating my own beliefs. H. H. Stern's
book, Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching (1983), while dense, gives
a comprehensive explanation, including a historical perspective, of the four
areas of social context, language, learning, and teaching. Karen Johnson's book
in this series, Understanding Language Teaching: Reasoning in Action (1999),
describes the research on how teachers think about their teaching, and how
beliefs function as one construct in that research.
36 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
4
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT
It was very difficult to conceptualize the content of my course.
There were so many variables to tal<e into account. I found myself
lost several times during the process. At one point, I stepped back
and focused on my educational precepts and then the goals and
objectives of the course. This helped focus my attention on what
was important but did not make the task any easier. I would so
much like to design a course that is flexible enough to meet the
needs and interests of my students and solid enough to be grounded
in what I believe to be worthy principles. When I set out to give
form to the situations and conversations, I found myself unable to
envision what the entire course would look like. How can I guess
what my students will want to cover? By the same token, how can
I prepare myself to meet their needs on an ongoing basis? What
skills can I develop to meet these dynamic groups? How do I
conceptualize the whole?
John Kongsvik
ohn Kongsvik wrote the opening thoughts above after his first attempt to
complete the process of conceptualizing the content of the communicative language course he was designing for beginners at a university in Mexico. He makes
three important points. First, conceptualizing content involves making choices.
The territory of language learning is vast and there are various ways to cover the
territory. For a given course a teacher has to choose from among them. In this
chapter we will look at ways the territory of language learning has been defined,
which provide a basis for making choices about what to teach in a course.
Second, it is a recursive process like writing. It usually takes several drafts to produce a finished piece of writing. Similarly, the way you conceptualize content
will go through more than one iteration before you are satisfied with it. Unlike
writing, however, the "drafting" process may continue, even as you are teaching
the course. In this chapter we will hear the voices of teachers describing the
drafting process and look at different ways they conceptualize the content of
their courses. Third, any syllabus prepared prior to meeting the students will be
transformed in its implementation, and thus it is worthwhile building room for
students' responses into the syllabus itself.
J
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CONCEPTUALIZE CONTENT?
The process of conceptualizing content is a multifaceted one which involves:
1111
thinking about what you want your students to learn in the
course, given who they are, their needs, and the purpose of
the course;
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT •
37
11111
IIIII
Chapter 9 looks
at ways to adapt
a textbook.
making decisions about what to include and emphasize and
what to drop;
organizing the content in a way that will help you to see the
relationship among various elements so that you can make
decisions about objectives, materials, sequence and evaluation.
The product of conceptualizing content is a kind of syllabus in that it delineates what you will teach. The form it takes-mind map, grid, list, flow-chart,
how detailed it is, whether it is one that someone else can interpret and use-is
up to you. If you are given a syllabus, either as specifications of what is to be
taught or in the form of a textbook, it is still important to go through the process
of conceptualizing content so that on the one hand you can understand how the
syllabus is constructed, and on the other hand can become aware of your own
priorities with respect to your students. Such a process can give you tools to manage and adapt the syllabus as a resource rather than be governed by it.
Conceptualizing content involves answering the questions listed in Figure 4.1:
Figure 4.1:
Questions that Guide Conceptualizing Content
1. What do I want my students to learn in this course, given who
they are, their needs, and the purpose of the course?
2. What are my options as to what they can learn?
3. What are the resources and constraints of my course that can help
me narrow my options?
4. What are the relationships among the options I have selected?
5. How can I organize these options into a working plan or syllabus?
6. What is the driving force or organizing principle that will pull my
syllabus together? (There may be more than one organizing principle,
as we shall see in Chapter 7 .)
One of the reasons that it is important to answer the questions in Figure 4.1
is that teachers have an array of options to consider in conceptualizing the content of the course they will teach. This was not always the case. When I first
started teaching English in Taiwan in 1973, I was issued a textbook for my class
and wished "good luck." I didn't think about content. I thought about getting
through the lesson. The textbook provided the content, which in those days was
fairly limited: grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation (through repetition).
The syllabus of the textbook was structural, with pattern drills accompanied by
tiny pictures. A subsequent class I taught used a textbook which prepared
Chinese students for study in a university setting in the United States. Each lesson consisted of a lengthy dialogue, which was followed by a breakdown of
each line of the text with a translation into Chinese and notes about the vocabulary and about American culture. My role was to help with pronunciation and
to answer questions about the vocabulary and culture. The real language learning in that class probably occurred in interaction with me about what was in the
book, and not with the book itself. Ideas that are common today such as com-
38 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
municative competence, a notional-functional approach, and learning strategies,
were not on my horizon. I was not aware that I had choices about what to teach,
other than which textbook to use. If someone had asked me what content I was
teaching, I probably would have said grammar and vocabulary.
Perhaps a useful analogy to conceptualizing content is that of making a map of
a part of the planet earth. One map highlights the geological surface features of
the territory such as mountains, valleys, and rivers. Another map highlights the
natural resources such as minerals, lumber, natural gas. A third map shows the
network of roads and towns. A fourth map shows population density. Some
maps show a combination of these. They are all charting the same area of the
planet, but in different ways and for different purposes. In a sense, they each have
a different organizing principle-geological features, natural resources and so on.
Similarly, when designing a language course, there are a number of features
which you can choose to highlight or to include in your map. What you choose
depends on the constraints and resources of your context, who your students
are, their needs, why they are taking the course, and whether and how the
course has been described to students or the public, as well as your own experience and preferences. Choice is a key, because you cannot explicitly focus on or
do everything. A map which tried to show all the features of the four maps listed above would be a mishmash that would be hard to make sense of.
Conceptualizing content, then, is a matter of articulating what you will
explicitly teach or explicitly focus on in the course and knowing why you have
made those choices. It also involves choosing the organizing principle or principles that will help to tie the content together. In my first teaching experience in
Taiwan, the choices had been made for me. Grammar and vocabulary were the
organizing principles for the courses I taught.
I have chosen the term "conceptualizing content" rather than the more traditional "syllabus design" for this process because I see it as a conceptual process
that is really about figuring out how to chart the territory in a way that makes
sense to each teacher individually. At the same time, the way a teacher charts the
territory is influenced by current thinking, by his beliefs, by the way in which he
was educated, and by the institution and community he works in. Thus it is an
individual process influenced by the educational and work environment. For
some teachers, for example, language learning may encompass more than language skills, it may also include skills related to affective areas, participation in
the community, and learning strategies. As long as a teacher purposefully
teaches that element as part of his or her syllabus, it is part of the content of the
course. Syllabus design, in the sense of how you choose and organize specific
content, is the subject of Chapter 7, "Organizing the content."
As outlined in Figure 4.1, the process of conceptualizing content involves
answering a number of questions, the first of which is What do I want my students to learn in this course, given who they are, their needs, and the purpose of
the course? I'd like to expand this question to include the third question, What
do I feel is most important for my students to learn, given the resources and constraints of my situation? The expansion is, in effect, a way of limiting oneself. As
much as we may want to teach many things, the resources and constraints of our
situation will help us to narrow our choices to what is feasible. A further chal-
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
39
lenge is to figure out how to integrate what we do choose to teach into something coherent, so that we use our students' time well.
Here is how one teacher, Iris Broudy, navigated the process of conceptualizing the content for a class of adults at an intermediate level of proficiency
offered to the community by the University of Orizaba in Mexico. Her students
were mainly young professionals in their twenties.
Iris Broudy
[When I started the process] it was a given that my syllabus should
be communicative, but I wondered: how can I determine its shape,
its content, its "personality"? To visualize what my course would
contain, I had to at least consider what I wanted the students to get
out of it. I already had a sense of what they wanted; I knew what
the institution required; I knew I wanted it to be fun. That background gave some direction to my initial brainstorming. But once I
"got it all out there," I faced a major hurdle: How could I organize
all these elements into a coherent syllabus?
Iris then looked at a list of possible elements of a syllabus (See, for example,
Figure 4.4, pages 52-53) to get ideas for her own syllabus. She did an initial
"mind map" of her course content and found that it revolved around functions
because she felt that "communication means doing things with the language in
order to interact with others." However, when she consulted texts specializing
in functions of English she felt that they focused on "stock phrases to be
'plugged in' to various contexts" and that was too limiting. She writes:
Furthermore, functional language is so contextual that without
a certain level of sociolinguistic and discourse competence,
the student cannot always sense which language is right for a
given situation.
Clearly, if my classroom is to be an environment of real
language use, I need to provide opportunities for my students
to be exposed to authentic language and then produce it in a
fashion that is both comfortable for them and acceptable to a
native speaker. So I redid the mind map, this time putting topics at
the center. When it came time to plan an actual unit, it was helpful
to have a topic (dating/social relationships) around which to
develop and sequence materials. It gave me a focus, and provided
coherence for disparate curriculum elements. However, in laying
out the syllabus-and later designing materials for one unit-I felt
constrained by having the topics determined in advance.
She wonders if determining the topics in advance means that the learners, the
ones who are learning to communicate, have been left out of the course.
Uh-oh! Then were does that leave me? I have to throw away everything I've done and start over? Whoa, Iris! Don't lose sight of the
fact that right now the process is more important than the product.
That's true. What I am doing here is more than designing a course.
I am translating my awareness of who I am as a teacher and my
deepest beliefs about the learning process into something tangible
and usable. So instead of jumping into a whole new syllabus at this
40
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE CoURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
point, I need to ask myself: How can you use the syllabus and materials you have already developed in a more learner-centered way? In
other words, how can you let go of the need to be in control, to let
the students lead their own learning, even if the results are raggedy
and imperfect?
Ideally, especially at the classroom level, the learners should be
involved in "a process of consultation and negotiation." (Nunan,
1988) Okay, so that means working within a general framework
but not having everything set in advance. It means trusting that
I will be able to find and develop materials that fit the topics and
communicative tasks that evolve from collaboration with the
students. So maybe instead of planning around specific topics,
I should think in broader modules or themes into which I can
integrate various elements as needed. That would allow for more
flexibility and allow the course to evolve more organically.
So that is where I am now. The visual representations should give a
sense of where I've traveled through this process of conceptualizing
content. There never really will be a "finished" syllabus, because
without input from the students, a plan is just a skeleton, not a
complex living-and changing-organism.
Iris Broudy's Final Mind Map
Figure 4.2:
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CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
41
Iris has tried to capture the process she went through in conceptualizing the
content of her course. The process she described was recursive-she made several drafts of her mind map syllabus based on different questions and considerations she grappled with as she planned. Major considerations were who the students were, what she believed they needed, and how she could involve them. She
was acutely aware that she wanted the students to have some say in the syllabus
itself. She was thus able to answer the questions John Kongsvik posed at the
beginning of the chapter: How can I guess what my students will want to cover?
By the same token, how can I prepare myself to meet their needs on an ongoing
basis? What skills can I develop to meet these dynamic groups? How do I conceptualize the whole?
Look at Iris Broudy's mind map in Figure 4.2. She has labeled different
areas she wants to teach in her course. Those areas represent the way she conceptualized content. What are they? How do the areas interrelate? Does the
mind map help you see a driving force or organizing principle for her course?
I!J
Think about your experience as a learner and teacher of languages.
Brainstorm a list of how you would answer the question "What makes up the content of language learning?" Add to or modify the list as you read the next section.
WHAT MAKES
See Chapter 8,
"Developing
Materials," for an
example of how
Iris fleshed out
the theme of
relationships
(pages 169-170).
UP THE CONTENT OF LANGUAGE LEARNING?
In Figure 4.2, Iris has drawn up a map of how she views the content of her
course and the interrelationship among the various aspects of its content. The
organizing principle, themes (which she has labeled "modules" on the map),
enable her to choose and integrate functions, grammar, and vocabulary related
to each theme. She has chosen to have students learn all four skills of speaking,
reading, writing, and listening, which they will develop with the aid of various
authentic materials (listed under "Genres"), which she will select according to
the theme. Additionally, students will learn about their own culture and the culture of the L2 with respect to each theme. Conceptually, there is much more
going on in Iris's course than in my classes when I first started teaching in
Taiwan. In the 25 years between my course and hers, the ways in which we
think about the "what" of language learning have expanded considerably.
Below, I will describe some of those ways.
As a framework for organizing the ways or categories for conceptualizing
ficontent, I use three of Stern's concepts introduced in Chapter 2: language,
learning and the learner, and social context (1992). Thus each way of conceptualizing content fits in one of these three areas. Under language the categories are:
linguistic skills, situations, topics or themes, communicative functions, competencies, tasks, content, speaking, listening, reading, writing, and genre. Under
learning and the learner the categories are: affective goals, interpersonal skills,
42 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
and learning strategies. Under social context the categories are: sociolinguistic
skills, sociocultural skills and sociopolitical skills. These categories are represented in Figure 4.3 below. They are explained in the next section and summarized with examples in Figure 4.4.
Figure 4.3:
Categories for Conceptualizing Content
Focus on Language
linguistic skills
topics/themes
competencies
content
situations
tasks
speaking
reading
communicative functions
listening
writing
genre
Focus on Learning and Learners
affective goals
interpersonal skills
learning strategies
Focus on Social Context
sociolinguistic skills
sociocultural skills
sociopolitical skills
Two points are important to keep in mind when reading and thinking about
the next section. First, the boundaries of the categories are not fixed, but permeable. They overlap and connect with other categories. This is because all are an
attempt to break down the complex phenomenon of language and what it is,
how one learns and uses it, and for which purposes. This means that when
deciding what to include in your syllabus, one component will, by its nature,
include other components. For example, you cannot focus on topics without
including vocabulary and probably some kind of situation or communicative
function. You cannot focus on speaking without including listening. Genre will
involve one or more of the four skills as well as sociolinguistic or sociopolitical
skills. Some of the categories are, in effect, combinations of others. For example,
competencies are a combination of situations, functions, and linguistic skills.
Second, under the language section in the framework, the categories include
both "what"-knowledge, and "how"-skills or activities. This means that
when you think about the content of the course, you can think about both what
students will learn and how they will learn it. For example, if your course is
skills based, as in a writing course, the what and how are intertwined. You may
conceptualize the content in terms of a "what" -types of writing they will learn,
but learning how to produce those types of writing involves a how-the actual
process of writing. If your course is task-based, the emphasis will be on "how,"
or students doing tasks together.
I have tried to use names for the different areas of content that are familiar to
teachers either from textbooks or from the literature in our field. This was easiest in the focus on language, which is the area that has been most "explored" in
our field and is also the section that has the most categories. Even in that area
there are competing definitions for various terms, such as "tasks." For this reason, I have tried to give examples of what each category means. For the section
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
43
See list of
suggested
readings at the
end in order to
learn more about
each area.
that focuses on learning and learners I drew on what I have seen in the syllabuses of teachers I work with as well as the work of Stern. In that section, "learning
strategies" has received the most attention in our field. For the section that
focuses on society and social context, I follow Stern's 1986 breakdown of sociolinguistic skills, sociocultural skills and sociopolitical skills.
Each category is followed by an example of how it might be implemented in
a classroom. These examples are drawn from my most recent language learning
experience, a course in American Sign Language (ASL), the language used by
Deaf North Americans. As I have already pointed out, no language course can
include all the categories explicitly. Therefore, when the ASL class did not
address a given category, I explain how it might have addressed it.
Focus
ON LANGUAGE
Linguistic Skills
Linguistic skills are those which focus on the systems that underlie the way language is structured: its grammar, pronunciation, and lexicon. This category is a
familiar starting point in conceptualizing the content of a language courseespecially if one is teaching beginners. This area of language includes:
1111
1111
1111
The sound system (phonology) of the language. In syllabuses this
is usually listed as pronunciation. This includes knowing how to
produce the individual sounds of the language, to pronounce the
unique combinations of sounds that form words, word stress,
and sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation.
The grammar of the language. This includes learning how words
are classified and what their function is, (e.g., pronouns, prepositions), how words are ordered to form phrases and sentences, the
verb tense system, and so on.
The lexicon or vocabulary of the language. This includes learning
a variety of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs),
knowing how words are formed (e.g., compounding, derivation),
how they are inflected (e.g., made into plurals,), and the meaning
of prefixes and suffixes (e.g., unfathomable).
The above areas are traditionally grouped together because they make up
the sentence level of a language and are concerned with relatively predictable
systems. A syllabus organized around these elements of language is called a
structural syllabus or a formal syllabus. These elements of language are familiar to anyone who has been a beginning language learner because they are the
learner's lifeline.
As I wrote the first draft of this chapter, I was learning American Sign
Language (ASL). I was a complete beginner, although I had spent time professionally and personally with Deaf educators. However, I had always communicated with them through interpreters. ASL, therefore, was new to me as a
learner. As a beginner, I needed words (signs), I needed to know how to form
them correctly (in ASL this includes hand shape, placement, motion, and facial
44 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
expression), and I needed to know the order in which they went together to get
my meaning across. Putting all three of those elements together required a great
deal of practice and was overwhelming at times.
As soon as one considers language beyond the sentence level, one becomes
concerned with interaction and communication between two or more people on
the one hand, and with text or discourse on the other. We will look at communication between people first. Interactions between people are relatively unpredictable because one cannot predict how someone will interpret, much less
respond to, a spoken or written message. The emphasis on communication
opens up other ways to view the content of language learning.
Situations
Situations are the contexts in which one uses language. They typically include
places where one transacts business, such as the supermarket, or the travel
agency, or places where one interacts with others such as at a party. A syllabus
built around situations is called a situational syllabus. Situations overlap with
communicative functions in that the situational syllabus includes the type of
transaction or interaction that will occur in the situation. For example, one
requests information at the travel agency or socializes at a party. They also overlap with topics when there is a topic associated with the situation, such as food
at the supermarket.
The text for my ASL class was a video which revolved around the life of a
family of four, the Bravo ASL! Curriculum (1996). Some of the episodes were
situation-based. For example, one episode took place at the breakfast table
and another at the supermarket. In the supermarket episode we followed the
family as they divided up items on a shopping list and shopped for various
kinds of food.
Topics/Themes
Topics are what the language is used to talk or write about. They may be personal, such as family, food, hobbies; they may be professional and relate to
employment practices or topics specific to the profession of the students; they
may be sociocultural and relate to education, political systems, or cultural customs. Topics and themes are often used interchangeably. For me, the difference
is that themes are broader relative to topics, although topics can be very broad.
Another difference is that a theme may tie a group of topics together. A syllabus
built around topics is called a topical syllabus. A syllabus built around themes is
called a thematic syllabus. Topics and themes provide a good backbone or organizing principle for a syllabus because it is easy to weave elements from other
areas around the topics or themes.
There was a topical component to my ASL course. In the first episode of the
video that provided the course text, we learned about families and vocabulary
associated with families. In another episode, we learned the vocabulary for
food in the context of a trip to the supermarket. In another episode the topic
was the house and we learned vocabulary associated with furniture and rooms
in the house.
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
45
Communicative Functions
See page 40.
The purposes for which one uses language are called language functions;
(Wilkins 1976.) They include functions such as persuading, expressing preference, and apologizing. In my experience, functions have been expanded to mean
any kind of transaction or interaction such as "buying something," "asking for
directions," "making small talk," and so on. Functions were initially paired
with notions, in constructing a syllabus (Van Ek 1986). Notions include concepts such as quantity, distance, smell, and texture. In terms of syllabus types,
the functional syllabus can be the organizing principle for a course; however,
because functions need to be contextualized, they are often paired with situations. Additionally, some functions, such as apologizing, are not as amenable to
a rich lesson as others such as expressing preferences. As Iris Broudy pointed out
earlier in her narrative about developing a course, functional syllabuses often
end up revolving around decontextualized inventories which are not particularly meaningful for the students. Notions tend to be abstract in conceptualization,
so teachers often find it easier to make notions concrete in the form of topics.
For example, the notion of quantity is learned within the topic of shopping, the
notion of distance in the topic of transportation.
Functions were a component of the syllabus in my ASL class. For example, in
the video episode "At the breakfast table" we learned functions related to meal
etiquette, such as requesting (that someone pass food), and asking about and
expressing preference (for orange juice over grapefruit juice).
Competencies
Competencies unite situations, linguistic skills, and functions. A competency
attempts to specify and teach the language and behavior needed to perform in a
given situation, for example, how to perform in a job interview, how to open a
bank account. Competencies are an attractive way to conceptualize content
because the elements can be specified and their achievement can be measured.
They are problematic, because, as I pointed out above, in most human interactions we cannot predict the path the interaction will take or the language used to
get there and so, for a given competency, the language and behavior the student
learns and is tested on may not be what she or he encounters or needs once outside of the classroom. Competency-based syllabuses are particularly popular in
contexts where the sponsor or £under wants to see measurable results.
My ASL class was not competency-based. A competency-based syllabus trains
the students to perform in target language situations in the dominant culture.
Tasks
See Markee
(1997), pages
93-94, for
a review of
definitions.
46 •
Tasks have been defined in a number of ways. A simple definition is "interactions whose purpose is to get something done." Tasks entered the field of ESL
and EFL teaching as a reaction to teaching that focused on predetermined content from the categories listed above-grammar, vocabulary, functions, and so
on. Tasks were seen as a way to promote classroom learning that focused on the
processes of using language rather than language products, and on meaning as
opposed to form (Nunan 1988). The assumption is that one develops language
competence through action and interaction, not as a result of the interaction
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
(Breen 1989). How a task is accomplished involves negotiation on the part of
the students. Additionally, the selection of the tasks themselves can be negotiated between teacher and students. Depending on one's students, tasks can be for
work purposes, such as designing a brochure, for academic purposes, such as
researching and writing an article, and for daily life, such as planning a trip.
They can be an end in themselves as well as a means through which students
perform functions, practice skills, and discuss topics. Some tasks approximate
those performed in the real world, some are performed in the real world, and
some are specific to the classroom. Information gap activities, in which student/group A has information needed by student/group B and vice versa, are a
kind of task specific to the classroom.
One challenge with this area of conceptualizing what one will teach is that it
encompasses such a broad range of activities, and that many tasks involve a
series of smaller tasks. A syllabus which is built around tasks is called a taskbased syllabus. A task-based syllabus is in the family of process syllabuses. A
process syllabus in its "strong" form is one in which there is no predetermined
content or outcomes for the course. The content is negotiated between teacher
and students depending on the way students perceive their needs (Breen 1989.) I
have not included a process syllabus as a category of conceptualizing content
because I feel that such an approach depends on a teacher being able to mobilize
what he or she understands about the other categories of content in the service
of the choices negotiated with the students. In terms of conceptualizing content,
task-based syllabuses and participatory syllabuses (described below) are types of
process syllabuses.
In my ASL class, we did not reach the point of accomplishing specific tasks.
Rather our interactions with each other focused on rehearsing the scripts of the
video episodes we watched. An example of a task would be to plan a meal and
decide together what we would buy at the supermarket, thus giving us the
opportunity to use all the signs we had at our disposal in a purposeful way.
Content
Content is subject matter other than language itself. Courses in which students
learn another subject (content) such as history or math or computer science
through the L2 are organized around a content-based syllabus. The priority
placed on the content relative to the L2 may vary. There are different models,
depending on this relationship which range from greatest emphasis on the language to greatest emphasis on the content. (See Brinton, Snow and Wesche 1989
or Snow, Met and Genesee 1989.)
We did not learn particular content in my ASL class. To be content-based, the
video we watched would have taught us math or history, for example, using
ASL as the medium of instruction.
Four skills: Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing
The four skills are the channels or modes for using and understanding the language. They are sometimes called the macro skills of language. Conceptualizing
language as discourse-stretches of sentences connected for a purpose either in
speaking or writing-means moving beyond language at the sentence level, and
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
47
beyond inventories of functions and learned dialogues. Learning the four skills
involves understanding how different text types serve different purposes, and
how texts are organized, so that one can understand them-through listening or
reading-and produce them-through speaking or writing. It involves learning
the subskills that enable one to be proficient in each skill.
Speaking subskills include knowing how to negotiate turn-taking
and producing fluent stretches of discourse.
Listening subskills include listening for gist, for tone, for
invitations to take a turn.
Reading subskills include predicting content, understanding the
main idea, interpreting the text.
Writing subskills include using appropriate rhetorical structure,
adjusting writing for a given audience, editing one's writing.
When one (or more) of the four skills is the organizing principle for a syllabus it
means that the emphasis is on learning the skill itself, as distinct from using the
skill for another purpose, for example, to reinforce grammar or to practice functions. A syllabus organized around one or more of the four skills is called a
skills-based syllabus.
In ASL the channel is visual rather than auditory. Literacy in ASL is called
"signacy" (Nover 1997). We focused more on the linguistic level of getting our
meaning across. If the teacher had used a skills-based syllabus, we would have
focused on producing longer stretches of sentences in a coherent fashion, learning how to get and maintain turns, watching fluent signers communicate and
trying to determine the gist of their messages, for example.
Genre
Language at the discourse level can also be viewed in terms of genre, communicative events or "whole" texts which accomplish certain purposes within a
social context. Texts can range from an academic paper or presentation, to a
supermarket flyer or phone message, to individual traffic signs. This approach
to syllabus design draws on the systemic functional model of language (Halliday
1994) which sees language as a resource for making meaning and texts as the
vehicle language users construct to make meaning. Those texts, in turn, are
shaped by the social context in which they are used and by the interpersonal
relationships among participants.
A course organized around genre or text would involve learners in understanding and analyzing texts on a number of levels including the lexico-grammatical level, the discourse level, and the sociocultural level; it would also
involve them in producing texts (Feez 1998).
It is interesting to think about genre in ASL because most genre work has
been with written texts. ASL is a visual/spatial language and does not yet have a
written form. I have participated in one genre in ASL, the academic lecture. I
attended lectures by Steve Nover, whose research is about the way language
policies have affected the Deaf and their acquisition of language. I understood
the lectures through voice interpretation. The lectures were similar to academic
lectures in English, but different in subtle ways. Nover's lectures were built
48 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
around a series of overheads that were highly visual in that they included lots of
diagrams and images, although they also contained a great deal of print. The
overheads were all horizontal, rather than vertical. Nover would leave time to
read each visual prior to resuming the lecture, since understanding his lecture
required watching him sign. His lecture wove together statistics and data with
stories about the people responsible for the policies and with personal anecdotes. I subsequently had the opportunity to do an academic presentation for
the same audience (through interpreters) and found it quite challenging to move
into a visual/spatial mode.
To summarize, the ways of conceptualizing content related
to language include:
Linguistic skills
Situations
Topics/themes
Communicative functions
Competencies
Tasks
Content
Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing
Genre
FOCUS ON LEARNING AND THE LEARNER
Affective Goals
Affective goals are concerned with the learners' attitudes toward themselves,
learning, and the target language and culture. Affective goals include developing
a positive and confident attitude toward oneself as a learner, learning to take
risks and to learn from one's mistakes, and developing a positive attitude
toward the target language and culture. It may also involve understanding one's
attitude toward one's own language and culture.
In the first ASL class I was apprehensive about using sign language. When I
tried to, I felt clumsy and inept. In our second ASL class, our instructor asked us
to "turn off your voice." This put us into a kind of immersion and forced us to
rely on different strategies to make sure we understood and got our meaning
across. It made us less self-conscious about using sign language as a means of
communication. While the instructor may not have had explicit affective goals,
she was clearly aware of our affective needs.
Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills involve how one interacts with others to promote learning.
These are skills learners develop and use to interact with each other and with the
teacher in the classroom. These skills are the basis for effective group work and
cooperative learning. They include understanding and assuming different roles
in a group and becoming an effective listener. One way this skill has been translated into a teaching goal is "Building a learning community." Another way is
"Learning how to learn with others."
In my ASL class, the teacher did not emphasize interpersonal skills explicitly,
although she helped us to learn each other's names (in sign) and asked us to work
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
49
with each other in pairs and small groups. At times I was uncertain about how
much initiative to take for fear of dominating the class. Because of my teaching
background, I was acutely aware of the interpersonal dimension of the class.
Learning Strategies
For taxonomies
of learning
strategies, see
Oxford (1990)
and O'Malley and
Chamot (1990).
See pages
27-30.
Learning strategies focus explicitly on how one learns. They are the cognitive
and metacognitive strategies we use to learn effectively and efficiently, such as
monitoring our speech (self monitoring) or developing strategies for remembering new vocabulary. The aim behind developing learning strategies is two-fold.
The first is to help students become aware of how they learn so that they can
expand their repertoire of learning strategies and become effective learners in
the classroom. The second is to help students develop ways to continue learning
beyond the classroom. Thus, if a student learns to self-monitor or to use memory strategies in the classroom, the strategies can presumably be used outside of
the classroom when using the target language. If, as part of your course, you
design activities to teach students to be aware of and develop specific learning
strategies, then strategies are one of the ways you conceptualize the content of
your course.
In my ASL class, we did not address learning strategies explicitly. To focus on
learning strategies, the teacher could have asked us to share the ways we tried to
remember new signs, or the techniques we had developed to practice outside of
class. This would have helped us become aware of our own and others' strategies. She could also have taught us strategies for practicing and remembering
signs, sentence structure, and so on.
Focus ON SociAL CoNTEXT
The three areas of social context below, sociolinguistic, sociocultural, and
sociopolitical, have a great potential for overlap, and it is often difficult to distinguish one from the other. For example, the sociocultural expectations of men
and women in a given culture may be reflected in sociolinguistic features such as
how men address women and vice versa, or language used exclusively to
describe one or the other. They may have sociopolitical implications depending
on how the teacher and students view gender roles. Using the letter to the editor
example from Chapter 3, learning about sociolinguistic features of a letter, such
as appropriate salutation and closing, may overlap with a discussion about the
cultural values implicit in such letters as well as the political implications of
writing such a letter.
Sociolinguistic Skills
Sociolinguistic skills involve choosing and using the appropriate language and
extralinguistic behavior for the setting, the purpose, the role and relationship.
These skills include knowing the level of politeness (register) to use, e.g., using
more informal speech with peers or children, more formal speech with
strangers; exhibiting appropriate extralinguistic behavior, e.g., how close to be
and appropriate body language. They also involve using appropriate spoken or
written formulaic phrases for certain situations. Sociolinguistic skills are context
dependent and so are generally learned through and alongside situations, the
four skills, or specific content.
50 °
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
In my ASL class, we learned functions such as giving and getting personal
information, and vocabulary, such as that related to family. Additionally, we
learned about what is sociolinguistically appropriate and inappropriate within
Deaf culture. For example, it is appropriate to wave one's hand toward the Deaf
person or to tap a Deaf person on the shoulder to get his or her attention.
Sociocultural Skills
Sociocultural skills involve understanding cultural aspects of identity, values,
norms, and customs such as those underlying kinship relationships, expectations
of men and women, or gift-giving. Such understanding enables us to interpret
explicit and implicit messages and behave and speak in a culturally appropriate
way. Sociocultural skills are rooted in intercultural understanding in the sense
that one must understand one's own cultural identity, values, norms, and customs, in order to know how and how much one can adapt to the target culture.
Each episode of the video we watched in the ASL class was accompanied by
worksheets. There was a true-false or multiple choice "pretest" to test one's
knowledge of culture, grammar, and vocabulary. The first question on the
pretest for episode one was a true-false question: "Deaf people actually have
their own culture." This question served to alert learners that Deafness is a culture, not a handicap. Another worksheet dealt specifically with cultural aspects
of ASL and was labeled "Cultural notes." The culture notes for episode one
pointed out that Deaf people have their own distinct culture (hence the capital
D), with its own set of shared customs and values, equal to other cultures, and,
as in any language instruction, cultural information would be included when
studying ASL.
Sociopolitical Skills
Sociopolitical skills involve learning to think critically and take action for effective change in order to participate effectively in one's community. These skills
include learning how to navigate systems such as medical, school, and employment systems, to know one's rights and responsibilities within them, and to take
action to make positive changes. Sociopolitical skills also involve learning to be
critically aware of how both spoken and written language are used to help or
hinder a given social group. This has been called "critical language awareness"
(Fairclough 1992.) The sociopolitical focus is most evident in programs for
adult learners in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
The participatory syllabus (Auerbach 1992) is an example of a syllabus that
emphasizes learning to effect changes in one's community and workplace.
In my ASL class, the instructor, who was taught to use her "voice" in her own
schooling, chose to use only sign and asked us to use only sign. This was a
sociopolitical decision on her part because the schooling of Deaf children in
"oracy," the use of their vocal cords, is regarded by many Deaf people as a form
of oppression since it has prevented them from developing ASL as their first language. In the video episode about the home, we learned about accessibility; for
example, visual modifications such as flashing lights when the doorbell rings
and how to use the TTY (voice relay) telephone. The worksheet that accompanied the unit asked us to consider a number of questions including the following
ones: "Think about how it would be if you were Deaf. How would you gain
~f!i!P.fi:.!f:t'''fAMEH'fO
ACADE~~iCA
Jt~!PORM.AC:t()f\f CoNCEPTUALIZING
CoNTENT "
51
U.A..i'cl"-"'.C'"-"'._ _"' _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
access to educational opportunities, emergency medical care, movies and theate1;
social events, etc.?" "Who should pay these costs?"
To summarize, the ways of conceptualizing content related to social
context include:
1111
sociolinguistic skills
1111
sociocultural skills
llll
sociopolitical skills
The chart below summarizes the possible ways to conceptualize content, with
examples of each.
Figure 4.4:
Conceptualizing Content According to Language, Learner,
and Social Context
Focus on language
Linguistic Skills
Situations
pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary
the contexts in which language
is used
e.g., intonation, verb tenses, prefixes
and suffixes
e.g., at the supermarket, at a party
Topics/Themes
what the language is used to talk
about
what the language is used for
e.g., family relations, the environment
e.g., science, architecture
e.g., turn-taking, producing fluent stretches
Listening
-----~-----
aural comprehension skills
e.g., listening for gist, for tone, for
Writing
52 •
producing written texts and learning
writing subskills
spoken and written texts that
accomplish a purpose within
a social context
e.g., using appropriate rhetorical structure,
adjusting writing for a given audience,
editing one's writing
e.g., analyzing a text in terms of its
purpose and how it achieves the purpose
within the social context; producing texts
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
J>.
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Focus on Learning and the Learner
Learning Strategies
how one learns
learning, language,
and culture
e.g., developing confidence,
learning from one's mistakes
e.g., self-monitoring,
memory techniques
Focus on Social Context
Sociopolitical Skills
e.g., levels of politeness,
body language
relation to one's own
learning to critique
and take action for
effective change
e.g., expectations of men
and women, gift-giving
e.g., navigating systems,
critical interpretation of text
Figure 4.4 is meant to be a stimulus for ways to conceptualize the content of
your course. It is not a map of everything you should include in your course. It
is meant to give you choices. Nor is it the "last word" on possible categories.
There may be categories that are not included, which you should feel free to
add. For example, when I presented this chart to colleagues in South Africa, one
of them proposed adding "thinking skills" to the chart, since that is an important aspect of how he conceptualizes the content of what he teaches. You might
use different words to describe the categories and I invite you to annotate the
chart with your own ideas.
I would like to return to a point I made earlier in the chapter. The categories
above overlap with each other in useful ways. For example, in a writing class,
students may learn writing skills such as how to edit a paper, they may learn
strategies for transferring the writing skills outside of class such as how to ask
people for feedback on their writing, they may learn vocabulary and grammatical structures, and they may learn about sociolinguistic features of a given text.
To use another example, a genre approach integrates grammatical, lexical, sociolinguistic, and discourse features in analyzing texts. The overlap is positive in
the sense that there is a limited amount of time in the classroom and one therefore wants to use the time as efficiently as possible. Learning how to have a
given writing activity effectively accomplish a variety of purposes is a result of
finding an organizing principle that can help to integrate the various strands of
one's course.
The purpose of the next two investigations is to help you see ways in which
some of the elements in the chart in Figure 4.4 have been integrated. The first
one involves researching textbooks. The second one involves analyzing a course
you taught or in which you were a learner.
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
53
II!J
Find two different textbooks for ESL!EFL. Look through their tables of
contents. How does each author conceptualize content? Which of the categories
in Figure 4.4 are included? What is the organizing principle (or principles) that
integrates the other elements?
For more
information about
the organizing
principles of a
course, see
Chapter 7.
mm! Thin!< of a specific language course in which you were a learner or which
you taught. Which aspects of the chart in Figure 4.4 did the course focus on?
Which aspect or aspects were the organizing principles for the course?
How DOES ONE Go ABOUT CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT
FOR A COURSE?
Figure 4.4 outlines 18 areas and additional sub-areas to consider. Clearly one
has to make choices. Nevertheless, it may seem daunting at first, as John
Kongsvik attests in his reflection at the beginning of the chapter on his initial
attempt to conceptualize the content of his course.
II] Iris Broudy made choices about what to include in her syllabus. Review
her mind map in Figure 4.2 on page 41. Which areas outlined in Figure 4.4 are
included in Iris's mind map?
The "product" Iris generated was a mind map-actually, she generated a
series of mind maps, of which Figure 4.2 is the last one. Other ways to capture
the content of a course are grids and flow charts. Below you will investigate two
grids. The remainder of the chapter will focus on mind maps and flow charts.
ED As you look at the following grids, answer these questions:
1. How did this teacher conceptualize the content of her course?
What did she think it was important for her students to learn?
Refer to the chart in Figure 4.4
2. What do you like about the way she conceptualized content?
3. What don't you like about it?
Figure 4.5 is Anne LeWarne's syllabus for a four week academic ESL course
for adolescents offered during the summer at a private high school in the United
States, St. Johnsbury Academy. Figure 4.6 is a section of Claire Winhold's syllabus
for a five week beginning English course for adult professionals in a university in
China. The context is described in some detail.
54 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 4.5: Course Design for St. Johnsbury Academy's Summer Program
Subject Area
Activities
Skills*
Sub-Skills
Goals
Mainstream
classes
(United States
history text that
they'll use in
history course)
taking lecture notes,
discussions,
reading texts,
research papers,
TOEFL prep
(various)
wrjth
S/1/th
rjwr
rjwr
paraphrasing,
selecting main
points, asking
questions,
supporting ideas
with examples,
skimming,
scanning,
using a dictionary,
bubble diagrams
to prepare
students for
academic
challenges of
the mainstream
classroom
Comparing
cultures
Making a speech,
interviewing people,
collecting data
from observation,
keeping a dialogue
journal, discussion,
brainstorming,
public speaking,
show-n-tell
sjl
wr/1
speech format,
using examples,
asking questions,
paraphrasing,
reported speech,
synthesizing info,
comparing cuitures, looking at
self/assumptions,
using supporting
details, organizing
in "logical order"
to familiarize
students with
the culture in
which they'll
be living
(self-awareness)
Living in the
United States:
dealing with
homesickness,
homestays,
making friends,
stress management
Dear Abby letter,
brainstorm issues,
write and perform
role plays,
dialogue journals,
letter writing
rjwr
wrjs
I
grammarmodals,
self expression,
poetry, literature,
coping techniques
to help students
to deal with
living in the
United States
Students'
interests:
music, movies
and videos,
summer
activities
song clozes,
watching movies,
making movies,
summer activities,
guides to St. J
1/s
rjwr
pronunciation,
suprasegmentals,
tense aspect,
observation,
comprehension,
grammar, idioms
to have funbecause it's
summer!!
* wr=writing,
s=speaking, !=listening, r=reading, th=thinking
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
55
Figure 4.6: Beginning English for Adult Professionals in a University in China
The class will meet for 2 hours, two times a week, over a period of 5 months. I was
told that the emphasis should be on oral proficiency. Some of the students hope to
immigrate to the United States, while others need English in order to interact with
foreigners at their jobs. The students have studied English for years in school and
have a good grasp of grammar, but they are unable to speak it. The course will
have a functional/cultural focus, and it will consist of learning modules, each with
a topical theme. The culmination of each module will consist of a classroom visit by
native English speakers, when the students will have an opportunity to try out what
they have learned of the English language and culture.
Overall goal: Students will be able to interact confidently and successfully,
at a survival level, with native speakers of English.
Topics;
Functions
Culture
Affective
Element
Goals
Learn functions
necessary for
survival.
Examine the
concept of culture
and aspects of
Chinese and
American culture
which relate to
the functions.
Improve language
skills necessary
for oral
proficiency at a
survival level.
Increase
confidence
and motivation
in speaking
English.
Objectives
By the
end of the
course the
students
should
know ...
Personal
and Family
Identification
1. greetings I
introductions/
leave-takings
2.how to ask
for and give
simple biographical information
3.how to give
telephone
numbers and
addresses
1.the American
conventional
verbal and nonverbal behavior
for each of
the different
functions
Example: how
Americans perform courtesy
requirements
2. some American
extra-1 ingu isties
3.about American
families
4. about American
values of time
5.what Americans
say as conversation openers
6.types of
American food
7. how to read an
American menu
1.how to
correctly use
grammatical
structures in
the functions
2.vocabulary
related to the
topics
3. which language
style and degree
of formality is
appropriate in a
given context
4.how to write
a peer dialog
journal
5.phonemes
in English
6.how to write
a short letter
(to the American
visitors)
1. that errors are
positive and vital
in the learning
process
2.what one other
classmate thinks
and feels about
Americans and
about learning
English (through
dialog journal)
3.that risk-taking
is important in
language learning
Numbers, Time,
Weather
4.how to read
and understand
the calendar
5.how to tell
time
6.how to talk
about weather
56 •
Language
Skills
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Topics/
Functions
Social
Interactions
7.how to thank,
invite, accept
and reject
invitations
B. how to
indicate a lack of
comprehension
9.how to request
politely
10.how to offer
and ask for help
11.how to
express likes
and dislikes
Culture
Language
Skills
Affective
Element
B. how to order
in an American
restaurant
9.about shopping in the
United States
Food
and Shopping
12.names
of foods
13.how to order
in a restaurant
14.how to give
directions for a
recipe
Daily Activities/
Sports
15.how to talk
about routines
and interests
Grids are useful as a way of laying out the content in an accessible, graphic
form. However, it is difficult to show the relationship among the various elements of the syllabus. Moreover, working in grid form, at least initially, can be
constraining. For a. more dynamic image of a syllabus, mind maps are useful
tools. A mind map is a non-linear way of representing the content itself, as well
as factors affecting the content. A mind map enables one to see the course as a
whole, the component parts, and the multiple relationships among the parts. I
am indebted to Carmen Blyth, who first introduced me to mind maps as she sat
in one of my courses and, instead of taking notes in the more traditional way,
sketched out a series of mind maps as a way to keep track of her thoughts about
what we were studying. She later wrote about her experience developing an
English for Academic Purposes course using mind maps as a way of capturing
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
57
the entire process (Blyth 1996). Another teacher, Rosa Silva, coined the term
"messy-neat" to describe a mind map because it captured the non-linear (messy)
way in which she perceived the course in an organized (neat) fashion. Generally,
one goes through successive versions of a mind map as one refines one's thinking about the course. Mind maps may also be a first step prior to drawing up a
chart or course sequence. Below we will look at some mind maps and some of
the thinking that went into them. Following that, you will be asked to draw up
your own mind maps.
10 As you read what the teachers below say about their mind maps and study
the accompanying mind maps, ask yourself,
1. How did this teacher conceptualize the content of her course? What did
she think it was important for her students to learn? Refer to the chart
in Figure 4.3.
2. What do I like about the way she conceptualized content? What don't I
like about it? Why?
enise Maksail-Fine is a high school Spanish teacher in rural upstate New
York. She describes the process of conceptualizing the content for her
course for high school students in a third year Spanish class. She is redesigning
the course after having taught it for three years.
D
Denise
Maksaii-Fine
My initial thought on conceptualizing my course content was,
"Oh, this is a piece of cake! Decide on the topic for the unit, then
outline the related vocabulary, grammar structures, and possible
activities." After all, I could do that in my sleep if need be. Then I
remembered that the reason I was doing this was to force myself to
make a marked departure from the way in which I had taught this
course in the past. Otherwise, this was going to be a big waste of
time and energy.
After that healthy dose of realism, I backtracked to the three year
period during which I had taught this course and thought about
what it was that I did not wish to include in the redesign. I was able
to pinpoint two related aspects: heavy reliance upon a textbook
and a grammar-driven curriculum. The reason I had relied on a
textbook so heavily in the past was because, as an itinerant teacher,
with six different daily course preparations in two different locales,
I simply did not have the time, nor the energy to design the curriculum in a way that I felt would be most effective.
I wanted to do away with relying so heavily on the text for a few
different reasons. It has the benefit of being organized topically,
provides a wealth of lexical items and is very thorough in its treatment of grammar; however, it is primarily a grammar-based text.
Through using the text in the past, my students have developed a
58 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
good understanding of how the Spanish language works, but I felt
that they still needed more practice actually communicating in the
language. I also felt that it would probably take just as much time
and effort to adequately adapt the text to my students' needs as it
would to redesign the course without using the text as the principal
tool. It is my hope that future students will continue to use it as a
reference tool.
Instead of doing a chart or a categorical listing of content, I
chose to do more of a mind map, or visual representation, of the
Spanish 3 content, in order to force myself to do things differently
than I ordinarily might.
For my first mind map, I focused on everything that I might need
to know or explain to someone unfamiliar with my curriculum.
By including all relevant aspects, I also felt that it would assist me
in becoming more comfortable with what I wanted my students
to do and where I perceived the course to be heading.
Figure 4.7:
Denise Maksaii-Fine's First Mind Map for High School Spanish 3
'-\€ .:; f ··--~--------------­
h,f\ s :e 'X ~~ j\1\
\___.----.'-./,'
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT '"
59
I started with the overall goal that led to my listing possible reasons
why students might take the course to begin with. Then I added the
major skill areas: listening, reading, writing, speaking, and culture.
Under each major skill area, I listed the mediums through which I
envisioned my students utilizing the skill. Then I added the communicative functions (socializing, providing and obtaining information,
expressing personal feelings, persuading others to adopt a course of
action) that the Board of Regents recommends students should be
able to demonstrate using the skill areas. Next, I added the fifteen
topic areas within which students are required to be communicatively functional. Finally, I added the two major forms of student
assessment: the New York State Regents Comprehensive
Examination in Spanish and a portfolio.
The resulting visual representation was, quite frankly, an absolute
mess, yet the process .of putting it all down on paper really helped
me to comprehend the scope of what I was trying to do.
The second visual that follows is the final visual representation
that resulted from the process and mess described above. After
devising the first mind map, I left it for a while to rattle around in
my subconscious. Approximately two weeks later, I sat down during
a break, and created mind map #2 within a ten minute period.
It includes some of the same key components as #1; it simply
became more visual and less messy. The sun includes the NYS LOTE
(New York State Languages other than English) standards, and the
rays represent possible student motivations for taking the course.
The clouds each represent a skill area, the raindrops topic areas,
and the umbrella embodies the communicative functions through
and under which the process of communication takes place.
The puddles represent the two major forms of student assessment:
The Regents Exam and the portfolio.
I included this second visual because I have found it useful when
trying to explain to people how I conceptualize what I teach .... I
discussed it, along with my goals and objectives and course syllabus,
at an interview. It was immensely helpful in conveying my message.
Denise has described the importance of doing more than one draft of a mind map
and leaving time between drafts. Allowing time to elapse between drafts gives you
the opportunity to rethink and reorganize the way you conceptualize content.
60 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 4.8: Denise Maksaii-Fine's Second Mind Map for High School Spanish 3
6
6
service.S
C'efo.'•rS
6
\ e.:suv-e_
6
eo..-n•n~
a.. livinJ
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
61
The following map is for a course which integrates the four macro skills of
reading, writing, speaking, and listening, using the newspaper as the "text" for
the course. The course is an 8 week course for high intermediate to advanced
level students studying in an Intensive English Program. Toby Brody, the teacher
who designed the course, writes about her mind map:
Toby Brody
The mind map helped me to solidify the direction of the course, i.e.,
what the syllabus would look like, how I would define my syllabus.
I began to see patterns emerge and from the patterns I could see that
what I had was a task- and skills-based focus with a structural component to it. By looking at the pattern, I know that there will eventually be some items deleted, while others will be added ....
The notion of the "newspaper" as something that can involve all
four skills may be somewhat strange as, at first, I thought of it as a
vehicle for teaching reading and that's all. So I like the fact that I
could envision the newspaper as a versatile medium, one that could
be used for limitless tasks covering all four skill areas.
Figure 4.9: Toby Brody's Mind Map for a 4 Skills Course Using the Newspaper
\
62 °
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Toby Brody's map, like Denise Maksail-Fine's, uses icons and images to capture some of the elements of her course. The next mind map (Figure 4.10) is different. It uses bubbles and a conceptual framework of knowledge, awareness,
skills, and attitude as the way to organize it. It is for a course taught by Monica
Camargo, a teacher at a language institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She wants to add
a literature component to an existing course with a prescribed syllabus and
required textbook. She realizes that she can't simply plunge in and teach literature "for its own sake," but that there are steps the class needs to go through
first. She writes:
One of the most important preliminary steps, according to one of
the students involved in this project, is to read, to understand, to
interpret, to establish a pleasant relationship with the text. In other
words, people need some time and practice to get used to reading
for thought, not only for information. Based on some talks with
students and on my previous experiments with literary texts in EFL
classes, I decided to choose texts which would be good samples
of different moments of the literature of English speaking countries,
and that could be used as integrated parts of the language classesas pre-activities for listening tasks, as follow-ups to speaking,
listening, or writing activities, as triggering tasks before a writing
lesson, and as topics for discussion.
For more about
this conceptual
framework see
pages 83-84.
Monica Camargo
Monica writes about her experience creating the mind map.
I decided to work on mind maps because it was the most difficult
thing for me to do before getting used to it. It was very hard for
me to put down on paper all those bubbles and arrows for a very
simple reason: my thoughts make sense, but when I try to visualize
my ideas it looks like a basket full of kittens.
The maps help me understand what is going on. The sensation I had
when I looked at the finished map was the same I experienced when
I saw a figure emerge from one of the Magic Eye posters for the first
time: amazing!
I have learned to work with a very useful tool which makes my
plans much more organized and therefore simpler in terms of
choosing the main stream and then inserting all the extras I can
(and have to.)
CONSTRUCTING A MIND MAP
Each of the mind maps we have seen is different, not only because of the difference in the course being taught, but because of the difference in the way the individual teacher conceives and portrays it. The first step in drawing a mind map
involves brainstorming everything you want to include in the course in map
form, rather than list form. This is like the "discovery draft" in writing. It will
be edited later.
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
63
r
Figure 4.10:
Monica Camargo's Mind Map
IE:'IJ As described above, a mind map is a non-linear way of representing the
content itself, as well as factors affecting the content. A mind map enables you
to see the course as a whole, the component parts, and the multiple relationships among the parts. This is equally true for a course you are designing from
scratch as for a course with a prescribed syllabus. Do step la if you are designing a course from scratch. Do step 1 b if you are working with a prescribed syllabus or text.
la. Take out a sheet of paper and do a first map of how you conceptualize
your course. Ask yourself, What do I feel is most important for my
students to learn given their needs and the resources and constraints of
my situation? Use words, phrases, and images to capture the areas you
feel are important, as well as any questions that arise. Feel free to draw
circles around them, use arrows, question marks. Use more than one
sheet, if everything doesn't fit. The purpose of this first version of the
mind map is to get out all the elements you feel you need to consider in
planning what will go into your course.
64 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
1b. Study the prescribed syllabus or text carefully. Then capture the
content of the syllabus in a mind map. The mind map should show
the relationship among the various elements of the syllabus as well
as which elements are the driving forces.
Now show on the mind map what you feel to be most important for your
students to learn given their needs and the resources and constraints of the situation. Add elements that you feel are missing and look at ways they connect to
the existing syllabus.
2. Show your mind map to a colleague. Let him or her ask questions
about it. As you explain the mind map, make a note of relationships
and hierarchies. Do some categories seem more important than or
flow from others? Do images come to mind that capture what you
are trying to show or that connect various elements?
Next steps involve sorting the information into categories, providing examples of the categories, and looking for ways in which different categories connect. You want to figure out the relationships both within the categories and
among the categories. You also want to see what kind of syllabus you have,
which category or categories are the driving forces of the syllabus.
IEJ
After each of you has had a chance to talk through your mind map, do
a "second draft" incorporating ideas from the discussion and responses to
these questions:
1111
Within a category, are the examples of equal importance?
1111
Do the examples sort themselves into sub-categories?
1111
Is there overlap among categories that suggests some kind of
streamlining?
Ill
Are there categories that are the driving force or organizing
principle, out of which other categories flow?
Ill
Do images come to mind that help to capture the nature and
relationship of the elements of the map?
It is important to achieve a balance between getting everything out and not
getting bogged down in too much detail. If you find yourself getting stuck, move
on to something else.
Because they capture one's ideas in a dynamic, non-linear way, mind maps,
especially in initial drafts, may not be immediately accessible to others, unless the
author explains what is meant. Taking time to talk through your mind map with
a colleague will help you to clarify and refine your ideas, to get ideas from your
colleague, as well as give your colleague food for thought about his or her own
course. Even if you are using a textbook or working from a prescribed syllabus,
mind mapping is a useful process for understanding the relationship among the
elements of the syllabus, articulating your concerns and priorities, and exploring
how both connect to the students in the particular context of your course.
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
65
Compare the grids in Figures 4.5 and 4.6 with the mind maps in Figures
4.8, 4.9, and 4.10. How is a mind map different from a grid? What is the advantage of one over the other?
FLOW CHARTS
Another way to conceptualize and represent the content is through a flow chart.
Below we will follow Chris Conley's process of conceptualizing the content for a
course for adult immigrants in the United States, whose goals for studying
English ranged from wanting to learn English for a better job to wanting to take
the citizenship test. Chris has decided that he wants to use a participatory
approach. In this approach teacher and students work together to identify problematic issues in the students' lives and then determine appropriate responses or
solutions. He describes the process in the form of journal entries. I have taken
excerpts from each entry.
Ill'!] As you read through Chris's journal entries and look at his flow charts,
ask yourself what you like about them, what you don't like about them and why.
Journal entry 1 excerpt
Chris Conley
I find myself in a dilemma. On the one hand the participatory approach
"doesn't involve a pre-determined curriculum, itemization of skills, set
structures, materials, texts or outcomes" (Auerbach and McGrail 1991,
p. 100). If this is so, how can I design a curriculum that uses this
approach before meeting my students? This idea runs contrary to the
traditional concept and process of curriculum development. On the other
hand, this "doesn't mean, however, that a teacher goes into the classroom empty handed." (op. cit.) If this is so, what do I bring with me?
What can I create before I meet the students and the class begins?
Journal entry 2 excerpt
In my mind, the overall goals of my students at the institute, my perceived
needs for my students, and the goals of the approach seemed to mesh
and to fit together like pieces of a puzzle. So my visualization of my context and the reasons for choosing the participatory approach to teaching
and learning came together naturally.
Journal Entry 3 excerpts
So what is it that I can have in my hand when I walk into my participatory
style class? Well, I think that it isn't so much in the hand as it is in the
mind .... I feel that I have an idea of why I am choosing to initiate and
implement such a syllabus in this context. I need now to conceptualize
the process of the approach. In my interpretation of the participatory
approach, process means the content of the course. How do I see the
content play out in the process? Where does language fit in? And culture?
What about the 4 skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking? ...
66 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 4.11: Chris Conley's Flow Chart #1
In my conceptualization of the content and process of the participatory
approach, I feel that there are 4 forces at work. The first is the driving
force of the approach. This is the process that teachers and students go
through in order to create the content. I need to come back to this later as
this is the cycle and sequencing of how the class and curriculum will play
out on a thematic, cyclical basis. Secondly, ... there is a sub-force of
culture. Language and culture are inseparable and when there is one, the
other is present. So in my course, culture will be addressed and presented
along with the language of a given theme. A third level of forces seem to
me to underlie or recur throughout the cycle of a theme. These forces are
the 4 skills of the English language, grammar studies, vocabulary, and
pronunciation. These forces can be used and reused as new themes
are presented. The final level is a group that can be called upon at the
request of the students. They represent a tertiary force and include
functions, topics, situations, and various competencies.
My content must also be immediate, authentic and real. It must meet the
immediate needs of the students. What do students need to learn today in
order to function and live in this community? The content must come from
authentic sources. What are the issues that my students face? Themes
and issues must be real in that they are not made up and that they relate
to the students' needs. I don't want to teach about something that has
little or nothing to do with their reality. If I can achieve immediacy, authenticity and real content, I can engage my students in meaningful learning.
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT "
67
Figure 4.12:
Chris Conley's Flow Chart #2
CONTENT
Immediate, Real, Authentic
SUB-FORCE
Culture
Pronunciation
Journal entry 4 (excerpt)
I want to talk about the driving force, the process, that I wrote about in
the last entry. As I said before, the participatory approach doesn't lend
itself to a predetermined curriculum or set of skills. It is a cycle or series
of steps to follow once a theme or an issue has been discovered. This
becomes the content of the course. I, as the teacher, have to listen to
what immediate, real issues my students are facing and are dealing with
at the present moment and then build content around those issues. At
first, I have to play a central role in finding the issues and building materials around them, but as the students feel more comfortable in the class,
they can take on a larger role in finding issues and developing materials.
In order to find issue and themes, I have to listen to my students in class
and at break, or I may build lessons called catalysts (Wallerstein 1983)
in order to find themes.
Chris Conley
describes a
lesson on pages
161-163.
68 •
The important question that arises in my mind is how do I present the
catalyst activities? What forces do I use? Do I teach from a reading text?
From a listening exercise? As a grammar exercise? My feeling is that I now
have the freedom to use any means possible in presenting an activity
and in listening for an issue. I can use grammar, listening, reading, writing,
andjor a function as my means of presentation. I see this part of my
curriculum as an integration of any and all the ways a teacher may present
a lesson. It is up to the imagination and experience of the teacher to be
creative and to achieve the goal of finding an issue.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE CoURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 4.13:
Chris Conley's Flow Chart #3
PROCESS
Writing:
Various topics
INTEGRATION OF FORCES:
Teacher uses Sub-force,
Underlying or Tertiary Forces
PICTURES
OBJECTS
Journal entry 5 excerpt
There is another driving force that is more important than using and
presenting catalyst activities and that is listening for real issues and
themes that the students are facing in their immediate life. This part
of the process of learning through participatory pedagogy represents
a cycle of steps that the students and teacher go through in addressing
the issues and themes. It is a sequence of events that I can conceptualize
and hold in the back of my mind when an issue is raised. I, as the teacher,
can guide the students through the steps of the cycle and offer them
choices of direction upon which they can decide the content and path of
the course. This cycle or sequence is one notion that I can visualize and
bring with me to a teaching situation and prepare to deal with before ever
meeting the students.
Chris Conley
describes the
cycle on pages
143-144.
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT •
69
hris Conley's narrative and diagrams give a sense of how he tried to resolve
the dilemma that he, John Kongsvik, and Iris Broudy have each articulated
in different ways in this chapter: how to be prepared prior to teaching students
and yet meet their needs on an ongoing basis. In Chris's case, he has drawn from
areas of language, (the four skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening; the linguistic elements of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, situations, topics
and functions), learning and learners (collaboration, critical thinking, sense of
community) and social context (culture, empowerment, participatory processes)
in his conceptualization of content. The areas he has drawn on are not all equally important. Participatory processes drive the syllabus and are its organizing
principle. Other aspects of content such as functions, grammat~ vocabulary, and
culture, can be brought into play to serve the students depending on the needs
that arise as he and they identify the issues that concern them.
Each of the teacher's processes and results in conceptualizing content that are
described in this chapter are different, both because of the uniqueness of the
context, who the students are, and who the teacher is. Each teacher who reads
this chapter and conceptualizes the content of a course will also produce unique
results. Grids, mind maps, and flow charts are meant to be tools in this process.
It is a creative process in which you determine the outcome within the context of
your particular course. Mind mapping is not a process that works for everyone.
You should find a process that allows you to both get your thoughts on paper
and to organize them in ways that help you to answer the question "What do I
C
feel is most important for my students to learn given their needs and the
resources and constraints of my situation?"
The duality of this process is similar to the one Peter Elbow describes with
respect to writing. He makes a distinction between first order thinking which is
generative, creative, and uncensored, and second order thinking which is critical, vigilant, and organized (1986.) First order thinking allows the writer to get
his thoughts down and provides the raw material that he can then reflect on and
organize via second order thinking. The dual processes allow the writer to produce a piece of polished work. The "polished work" for course design doesn't
necessarily show up at this stage but in later stages of setting goals, organizing
the course and developing materials. However, there is still a certain amount of
editing and organizing in conceptualizing content. The process you use should
allow you to be both generative and creative, so that you can then be critical,
vigilant, and organized. The process is likely to be a back and forth between the
two types of thinking before a product emerges that provides a practical foundation for further work on your course.
70
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE fOR TEACHERS
Suggested Readings
One of my favorite resources for conceptualizing content is Threshold Level
English (1986) by Jan van Ek because of its useful lists of situations, notions,
functions, grammar points, and topics. Sadly, it is out of print; howeve1; it may
be available in libraries. Chapter 3, "Language Teaching Objectives," in H. H.
Stern's book Issues and Options in Language Teaching (1992) provides a
thoughtful map of the territory of language learning and makes a compelling
case for including the affective component. To learn more about task-based syllabuses, see Tasks in a Pedagogical Context: Integrating Theory and Practice
edited by Graham Crookes and Susan Gass (199 3). This book contains several
useful articles on aspects of task-based curricula including how to design and
sequence tasks and how to integrate them into one's teaching. To learn more
about the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, from a genre
perspective, Text-based Syllabus Design by Susan Feez (1998) is specifically
about designing courses around texts and is written in a clear and accessible format. To learn more about the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and
writing, from a skills perspective, Alice Omaggio Hadley's book, Teaching
Language in Context (1993), provides good background but is also dense and
hard to wade through. To learn about the participatory approach, see Making
Meaning, Making Change: Participatory Curriculum Development for Adult
ESL Literacy (1992) by Elsa Auerbach.
For an example of mind mapping an entire course (from goals and objectives
to materials), see "Designing an EAP Course for Post-Graduate Students in
Ecuador" (1996) by Carmen Blyth.
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT
8
71
5
FORMULATING GOALS
AND OBJECTIVES
OJ Make a list of questions you have about goals and objectives. Use the list
as a guide as you read the chapter.
n a teacher training workshop I conducted recently I began by having each
participant talk to another person and find out a few things they had in common. As I circulated to listen in on some of the conversations I came across two
teachers who had found something they didn't have in common: their views on
goals and objectives. One teacher quite vehemently stated that you couldn't
teach without your objectives clearly spelled out, otherwise you wouldn't know
what you wanted the students to learn. The other teacher, equally emphatically,
said that objectives were a hindrance because everything was decided beforehand and students were forced to follow a path that might not be right for them.
I suggested that they were both right. Their viewpoints represented what I see as
one of the contradictions or paradoxes of teaching: it helps to have a clear idea
of the territory to be covered-clear objectives-at the same time that it is
important to follow the learners' lead as they move through the territory.
In principle, goals and objectives are a good thing. The question How can you
design a course if you don't know where you want your students to come out?
seems to be a good argument for setting goals. In practice, goals and objectives
are one of the hardest aspects of course design for the teachers I have worked
with, including myself. Why is this so? I think the reason lies in the nature of
teaching and of teachers' lives. Studies on teachers' planning processes in the
1970s and early 80s showed that teachers are primarily focused on the "concretes" of the classroom: what they will teach, how they will teach it, the students in the classroom (Clark and Peterson 1986.) Aspects of planning which
were not immediately tied to the here and now of the classroom, such as goals
and objectives or how the class fit into the curriculum as a whole, were not in the
foreground of their thinking. This doesn't mean that teachers don't have goals
and objectives but rather that these are implicit in what they do rather than
explicitly stated, or that they are a later part in the planning process. In my own
planning, I tend to think in terms of content-the general areas of what I want to
teach or students to learn-and to think about how to integrate those in the
classroom. However, when I finally sit down to write goals and objectives, I am
forced to be explicit about what I want students to get out of the course. Being
explicit then keeps me accountable in the sense that the materials I develop and
I
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES •
73
what I choose to teach need to fit with the goals and objectives. The goals and
objectives also provide a map of what I need to assess.
One problem with goals and objectives is that what happens in the classroom
is to a greater or lesser extent unpredictable, while goals seem fixed. Denise
Lawson, whose beliefs about teaching an advanced writing course we saw in
Chapter 3, puts it this way:
Denise Lawson
A Tupperware
container is a
plastic container
used to store
food.
Dylan Bate
74 •
Looking back over the process of designing this course, I realize
that determining goals and objectives presented a real stumbling
block for me. Although the idea of determining goals and objectives
as a starting point made sense, I was reluctant to put mine on paper;
it felt limiting, like a Tupperware container into which my course
would have to fit.
Denise captures the tension between the organic nature of teaching and the way
in which goals seem to constrain it, to force it into a "Tupperware container." I
don't think that's a reason not to have goals. Goals provide guidelines and
should be flexible enough to change, if they are not appropriate. There are two
bigger obstacles to formulating goals and objectives. One is lack of time.
Generally, the very full working days of teachers do not provide the planning
time needed to formulate goals and objectives for their courses. The other is that
people don't know how to formulate them. This chapter is meant to help you
formulate goals and objectives for your course in a way that makes sense to you.
In the chapter we will explore what goals and objectives are and the relationship
between them as well as a variety of ways to formulate and articulate them.
If you haven't had experience with formulating goals and objectives, you will
probably go through a few drafts or need to put the first draft aside and come
back to it once you have worked on other aspects of your course. The goals
themselves or the wording may change. You will write them differently if you
plan to give them to your students or if they provide a working document for
you. You will be clearest about them after you have finished teaching the course!
However, once you have learned the "discipline" of writing goals and objectives
you will find that they will help you make decisions so that you can shape a
coherent and satisfying course. Dylan Bate, a teacher who designed a course for
university students in China, expresses this view in this way:
Teaching is making choices. There are many worthy and precious
things that can be done in the second language classroom, but they
can't all be done. Choices must be made, and the only appropriate
arbitrator in these decisions are the goals and purposes defined
by the teacher for the specific course in its specific context. Once I
realized this, the other parts of the puzzle either became irrelevant
or quickly fell into place.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
I!J
What has been your experience with formulating goals and objectives?
Do you feel more like Dylan Bate? More like Denise Lawson? Why?
WHAT ARE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES AND WHAT
THEIR RELATIONSHIP?
Is
Goals
Goals are a way of putting into words the main purposes and intended outcomes of your course. If we use the analogy of a journey, the destination is the
goal; the journey is the course. The objectives are the different points you pass
through on the journey to the destination. In most cases, the destination is composed of multiple goals which the course helps to weave together. Sometimes,
teacher and students reach unexpected places. When you do veer "off course,"
it may be because you need to adjust your course for a more suitable destination
for your students and so you must redefine and refine your goals. On the other
hand, goals can help you stay on course, both as you design the course and as
you teach it.
Stating your goals helps to bring into focus your visions and priorities for the
course. They are general statements, but they are not vague. For example, the
goal "Students will improve their writing" is vague. In contrast, "By the end of
the course students will have become more aware of their writing in general and
be able to identify the specific areas in which improvement is needed" while general, is not vague. It also suggests that there will be other goals which give more
information about the ways in which students will improve their writing.
A goal states an aim that the course will explicitly address in some way. If, for
example, one of the goals of a course is to help students develop learning strategies or interpersonal skills, then class time will be explicitly devoted to that goal.
Because class time is limited, and the number of goals is not, choice is important.
While you may be able to think of many laudable goals, they should address
what can be realistically achieved within the constraints and resources of your
course, i.e., who the students are, their level, the amount of time available, the
materials available. They should be achievable within the time frame of the
course with that group of students (see Figure 5.1).
At the same time, goals are future oriented. In his book on curriculum
design, J. D. Brown proposes that goals are "what the students should be able
to do when they leave the program." (1995, p. 71). The following is an example
of a goal from a writing course using computers which illustrates this point:
"By the end of the course students will have developed the ability to use the
computer for a variety of purposes." Finally, goals are the benchmarks of success for a course. The course can be deemed successful and effective if the
goals have been reached. I suggest applying this "formula" to your goals: If
we accomplish X goals, will the course be successful? This last question foreshadows the relationship between goals and assessment, which I will discuss
later in the chapter.
See Chapter 2,
page 16.
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
"75
Figure 5.1: Making Choices about Goals
:P..chievab~
what is appropriate?
Objectives
Objectives are statements about how the goals will be achieved. Through objectives, a goal is broken down into learnable and teachable units. By achieving the
objectives, the goal will be reached. For this reason, the objective must relate to
the goal. For example, in a first pass at formulating goals for his course, one
teacher stated one goal as, "Students will be able to interact comfortably with
each other in English." One of the objectives he listed under that goal was for
students to learn to tell stories. There is nothing wrong with students learning to
tell stories, but telling stories generally does not require interaction, and so for
this teacher's goal, learning to tell stories was not the most appropriate objective. The teacher asked himself, "Will achieving this objective help to reach the
goal?" When he determined that the answer was no, he eliminated that objective
and sought other, more appropriate objectives.
The following analogy was used by two teachers in an EFL reading class,
Carolyn Layzer and Judy Sharkey, to help their students understand goals,
objectives and strategies.
I told the students that a friend wanted to lose 10 pounds that she
had gained over the winter. I wrote, "I want to lose 10 pounds"
on the left side of the board. Then I asked the students for some
advice on how to achieve her goal. I wrote their responses on the
right side of the board. Some of their advice was very general, for
example, "exercise" and "don't eat junk food." I told them my
friend's schedule was very busy and asked what kind of exercise she
could do given her time constraints. This led to some more specific
suggestions, for example, "She should always take the stairs instead
of the elevator." Students could see that the more specific the
advice, the easier it would be to follow it.
76 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Showing how the suggestions could cause the effect of losing weight illustrates
the relationship between goals and objectives: If I work out at the gym and stop
eating junk food, then I am likely to achieve my goal of losing 10 pounds. My
first objective is to set up a regular gym routine; My second objective is to stop
eating junk food.
Thus another aspect of the relationship between goals and objectives is that
of cause and effect. If students achieve A, B, C objectives, then they will reach Y
goal. Figure 5.2 tries to capture the cause and effect relationship between goals
and objectives. In principle, this is a good idea. In practice, students may not
achieve the goal or may achieve other goals the teacher hadn't intended. Using
the losing weight analogy above, the workout at the gym may improve muscle
tone and density, and because muscle weighs more than fat, weight loss due to
the reduction in junk food may be minimized. However, the person may end up
feeling more energetic and not care about the weight loss anymore! On the other
hand, if the goal remains important and is not achieved through the means or
objectives described above, then the objectives may need to be examined and
changed or refined so that the goal can be reached.
Figure 5.2:
Cause and Effect Relationship between Goals and Objectives
~
~
~
If these
objectives are achieved
then this goal
will be reached.
Objectives are in a hierarchical relationship to goals. Goals are more general
and objectives more specific. Brown (1995) points out that one of the main differences between goals and objectives is their level of specificity. For every goal,
there will be several objectives to help achieve it, as depicted in Figure 5 .3. Goals
are more long term, objectives more short term. To return to the weight loss
analogy above, losing weight could be an objective if there is a larger goal, for
example to improve one's overall health. Some teachers have found it helpful to
have three layers of goals and objectives. The important point is that each layer
is more and more specific.
Figure 5.3:
For Every General Goal There Are Multiple Specific Objectives
objectives
objectives
objectives
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES •
77
The Australian Language Levels guidelines have four layers for their goals
and objectives. The goals, which provide direction for the teaching and learning,
are written from the teacher's perspective. They are divided into broad goals,
which are the general aims of the course, and specific goals, which break down
the broad goals and make them more tangible. Objectives spell out what the
students will actually learn or be able to do by the end of the course. General
objectives spell out holistic results and specific objectives spell out particular
knowledge or skills the students will acquire (Vale, Scarino, McKay 1996). The
relationship among these four layers is depicted in the chart in Figure 5.4 below
for a syllabus module on "Self and others" at the senior secondary level.
Figure 5.4:
Afour-Part Scheme of Goals and Objectives From the Australian
Language Levels
One of five broad goals is "learning-how-to-/earn":
Learners will take a growing responsibility for the management of their
own learning, so that they learn how to learn, and how to learn a language
The specific goals are to enable learners to develop the:
111
cognitive processing skills to understand and express values, attitudes,
and feelings; process information; think and respond creatively
111
communication strategies to sustain communication in the target
language.
Some general objectives for these goals are:
Learners will be able to:
111
take part in an interview and thereby talk about self, family, home;
make suggestions, ask questions; state and ask opinions;
111
keep a diary for a specified period of time
Some of the specific objectives for the general objectives are:
Learners will be able to:
111
generate questions
1111
state and ask opinions
1111
record information
OJ
Study the relationship between the different levels of objectives and goals
in Figure 5.4. Can you see how the specific objectives will help to achieve the
general objectives? How the general objectives will help to achieve the specific
goals? How the specific goals will help to achieve the broad goals?
ne objective may serve more than one goal; see Figure 5.5. For example,
Denise Lawson had two affective goals for her advanced composition
course: "Students will develop confidence in their ability to write in English."
"Students will develop an appreciation for the contribution their knowledge and
O
78
°
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
experience (and that of their peers) make to the learning process." These goals
are served by the same objectives. Among them are: "Students will be able to
document their strengths as writers, highlighting areas in which they can serve
as 'teachers' to other students." "Students will be able to use assessment forms
to evaluate their own and their peers' writing." "Students will be able to articulate how they can use feedback from their peers to improve their writing."
Figure 5.5: One Objective Can Serve More than One Goal
See Appendix 5-3,
page 244,
for Denise
Lawson's
complete set
of goals and
objectives.
~~
c6cb~~~
objectives
DJ Use the diagrams in figures 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.5 as a basis for summarizing the information about goals and objectives and the relationship between them.
ormulating goals and objectives helps to build a clear vision of what you will
teach. Because a goal is something toward which you will explicitly teach,
stating goals helps to define priorities and to make choices. Clear goals help to
make teaching purposeful because what you do in class is related to your overall
purpose. Goals and objectives provide a basis for making choices about what to
teach and how. Objectives serve as a bridge between needs and goals. Stating
goals and objectives is a way of holding yourself accountable throughout the
course. Goals are not a "wish list." For example, if one of your goals is for students to be able to identify areas of improvement in their writing, then you will
need to design ways for students to evaluate their writing as well as ways to
assess their effectiveness in identifying those areas they need to improve. Finally,
a clear set of goals and objectives can provide the basis for your assessment plan.
F
WHAT ARE WAYS TO FORMULATE AND ARTICULATE GOALS
AND OBJECTIVES?
Examples of goals
The goals and objectives you will read about below were written by the teachers
for themselves to serve as a planning tool for their courses. When you write your
own goals, you should keep in mind the audience for the goals. If it is your students, you will need to consider whether the language you use is accessible to
them. Even if you alone are the audience for the goals and objectives, you
should try to make them transparent enough for someone else to understand.
Unpack the language to simplify and clarify it and also to find out if what you
thought was one goal or objective is actually more than one.
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES "
79
Study the two sets of goals for two writing courses below.
1. What do you like about each set? What don't you like about each
one? Why?
2. What do the goals tell you about each teacher's course?
About their beliefs?
3. What are similarities and differences in the way the goals are stated?
The goals below are David Thomson's goals for his course, "Writing using
computers." The course is for intermediate to high intermediate level students
in an Intensive English program in the United States. It meets for 30 hours
over 4 weeks.
Figure 5.6:
Goals for a "Writing Using Computers" Course
Awareness
David Thomson
Goal 1. By the end of the course, students will have become more aware
of their writing in general and be able to identify the specific areas in
which improvement is needed.
Teacher
See Appendix 5-1,
page 239, for
David Thomson's
complete set
of goals and
objectives.
Goal 2. Throughout this course, the teacher will clearly communicate
to students what his standards are for successful completion of tasks.
Goal 3. By the end of the course, the teacher will have developed a
greater understanding of student needs and will make adjustments to
ensure these needs can be met the next time he teaches the course.
Attitude
Goal 4. By the end of the course, students will have developed a
positive attitude toward writing.
Skills
Goal 5. By the end of the course, students will have developed the ability
to use the computer for a variety of purposes.
ACTFL is an
acronym for
American Council
of Teachers of
Foreign
Languages.
Goal 6. By the end of the course, students will improve their writing to
the next level of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines Writing scale.
Knowledge
Goal 7. By the end of the course students will be able to understand the
elements of and what constitutes "good writing"
Goal 8. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand
the appropriateness of using computers for different writing and research
purposes.
80 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The following goals are for Denise Lawson's 10 week, 40 hour, Advanced
Composition course in a university extension program in the United States.
Figure 5.7:
Goals for an Advanced Composition Course
I. Proficiency
Students will develop effective writing skills transferable to any context.
II. Cognitive
Students will gain an awareness of the influence of sociocultural issues
on their writing.
Ill. Affective
111
Students will develop confidence in their ability to write in English.
111
Students will develop an appreciation for the contribution their knowledge and experience (and that of their peers) makes to the learning
process.
Denise Lawson
See page 32
for her statement
of beliefs.
IV. Transfer
Students will gain an understanding of how they can continue to improve
their writing skills.
David and Denise have organized their goals in different ways. David has
used a framework which he calls "A TASK," which is derived from the KASA
(knowledge, awareness, skill, attitude) framework, and Denise uses Stern's 1992
framework of cognitive goals, proficiency goals, affective goals, and transfer
goals. I will explain those frameworks in more detail below. For some teachers,
frameworks are helpful as a way of organizing their goals. For other teachers,
the categories they have used to conceptualize content, for example, functional,
topical, grammatical, tasks, reading, writing, affective, etc., provide the categories for the goals. Denise Maksail-Fine conceptualized the content for her
high school Spanish course in the categories of speaking, listening, reading, writing, cross-cultural skills, and cooperative learning skills. These categories provide the basis for her goals below.
lEI)
See page 83
for the KASA
framework
and pages 84-85
for Stern's
framework.
See her mind
map in
Chapter 4,
page 61.
Study the goals for the Spanish 3 course below.
1. What do you like about them? What don't you like about them? Why?
2. What do the goals tell you about the teacher's course? About her beliefs?
3. Compare them with the two sets of goals above. What are similarities
and differences in the way the goals are stated?
These are Denise Maksail-Fine's goals for her year long high school
Spanish 3 class:
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES •
81
Figure 5.8: Goals for Spanish 3
Goal 1: Students will be able to utilize the skills of listening and speaking
for the purposes of: socializing, providing and obtaining information,
expressing personal feelings and opinions, persuading others to adopt a
course of action, in the targeted topic* areas, by: (her objectives for
this goal follow).
Denise
Maksaii-Fine
Goal 2: Students will be able to utilize the skills of reading and writing
for the purposes of socializing, providing and obtaining information,
expressing personal feelings and opinions, persuading others to adopt
a course of action, in the targeted topic* areas, by: (her objectives for
this goal follow).
See Appendix 5-2,
page 242, for
Denise MaksaiiFine's complete
set of goals and
objectives.
Goal 3: Students will develop cross-cultural skills and understandings
of perceptions, gestures, folklore, and family and community dynamics
by: (her objectives for this goal follow).
Goal 4: Students will develop skills that enable them to work together
cooperatively by: (her objectives for this goal follow).
*The targeted topic areas are: personal identification, house/home, services!
repairs, family life, community and neighborhood, physical environment,
mea/taking, health/welfare, education, earning a living, leisure, public and
private services, shopping, travel, current events.
Formulating goals
The first step is to list all the possible goals you could have for your particular
course, based on your conceptualization of content, your beliefs, and/or your
assessment of students' needs (see Chapter 6). The list may be ragged, it may not
be clear what is truly a goal or how to state it, and there may be repetition and
overlap. Next steps are to look for redundancies, and to identify priorities based
on your beliefs and your context. What is most important to you? What are the
expectations of the institution, the students? Because all of these factors come
into play, your goals will go through several drafts as you consider different
aspects of the course and as you try to make the way you express them clearer.
EIJ
Make an initial list of goals for your course. Keep in mind the image of
a destination with multiple aspects or the formula "The course will be
successful if . .. "
nce you have a list or map of your goals, how do you organize them into a
coherent plan? One way to organize your goals is to use the categories you
have used for conceptualizing content, as Denise Maksail-Fine did for her
Spanish course. (You may want to look again at her mind map in Chapter 4.)
These categories might include communicative functions, topics, grammar,
tasks, reading, writing, interpersonal skills, etc. For example, if your course integrates the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, then you can
have four major goals, each one related to a skill.
O
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DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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Teachers have also found that different conceptual frameworks can help them
to organize their goals. I have worked with two. The first one is called KASA,
which is an acronym for knowledge, awareness, skills, and attitude. The second
one comes from H. H. Stern (1992) and includes cognitive goals, proficiency
goals, affective goals and transfer goals. I will also introduce a third framework
developed by Genesee and Upshur (1996).
The KASA framework was developed by the faculty in the Department of
Language Teacher Education at the School for International Training, where I
have taught for the last 16 years, and is used as a basis for our MA program
goals. Knowledge goals address what students will know and understand. These
goals include knowledge about language and about culture and society.
Awareness goals address what students need to be aware of when learning alanguage. These include areas of self-knowledge, understanding of how the language works, and understanding of others' use of language, for example,
becoming aware of the strategies they use as learners, or the importance of
extralinguistic factors in communication. Skills goals address what students can
do with the language. This is perhaps the broadest area, encompassing the four
skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as well as the functions and
tasks one accomplishes through language. Attitude goals are those that address
the affective and values-based dimension of learning: students' feelings toward
themselves, toward others, and toward the target language and culture. These
goals include respect, self-confidence, and valuing community. I have found that
objectives related to attitudes depend a lot on the teacher's attitude and what the
teacher does. For example, if a goal is to develop a positive attitude toward writing in a second language, then the teacher herself needs to develop an attitude
that values writing, both her own and her students'.
Here is how the KASA framework might work for a teacher who is learning
how to formulate goals and objectives.
Knowledge: I know that goals are X, that objectives are Y,
that one can state them in this way.
Awareness: I never realized how useful it is to set goals and
objectives. Now I do.
Knowledge is not particularly useful without awareness. You can take a test
about how to formulate goals and objectives, but if the "penny hasn't dropped"
about their usefulness, then the knowledge is useless. Having awareness and
knowledge about goals and objectives is not sufficient however; one must also
develop the skill through practice and use.
Skills: After many attempts and reflection on those attempts,
I know how to write goals and objectives.
Attitude: Although it can be frustrating, I feel that I will get
better at doing this, and that goals and objectives are essential
to developing a coherent course.
OR I feel that goals and objectives are mechanistic and a
waste of time.
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES •
83
Clearly, the attitude expressed in the last sentence will make it difficult to
achieve any of the above, which is one reason that I feel that affective/attitudinal
goals are worth having_
As we saw above, David Thomson used the KASA framework to formulate
the goals for a writing course using computers, but he added another layer, goals
for the teacher, and turned the acronym around to read: ATASK. He writes:
I have listed the goals and objectives under the headings
A TASK (A [Awareness], T [Teacher], A [Attitude], S [Skills],
and K [Knowledge]. I have called it this because a "task" to me
connotes something done on an ongoing and as-needed basis.
Tasks are done regularly and routinely and require modification
and adaptation to fit the needs of the situation. I want my goals
and objectives to have that same dynamic and flexible sense.
David Thomson
Just having finished a teacher-training program has given me a
new perspective on my role in the classroom. I want to, more
appropriately need to, be accountable for my teaching, my actions,
and my relationships with my students. Having goals and objectives
written down (not in stone, of course) is one way for me to hold
myself accountable and keep me focused on my responsibilities
during the course.
David notes at the end of his list of goals and objectives:
These are the goals and objectives for the course. I still am not
certain if the "knowledge" goals are appropriately labeled and
belong under that heading, but that is a semantic issue I can attend
to later. For now I feel they are broad enough to cover the areas I
feel are the core to the course. I would feel comfortable starting off
this class with them, especially knowing that they do not have to
be "etched in stone."
David's goals
and objectives
can be found
in Appendix 5-1
on page 239.
David makes three points that are important to keep in mind. First, goals and
objectives should reflect not only what you want your students to accomplish in
the course, but also your beliefs. David has chosen to explicitly include goals
related to his teaching because of his belief that he needs to be accountable for
what he does. Your beliefs will be expressed differently; for example, you may
feel that beliefs about teaching are implicit in other goals. Second, the purpose
of goals is to give you a clear sense of what the course is about and where you
are headed. How they are worded is something you can work on over time.
Third, they are not "etched in stone" and can be changed if they do not work or
can be modified to fit the reality of your course.
tern (1992) has a similar framework for setting goals. He proposes the following categories:
S
Proficiency: these include what students will be able to do with the
language (e.g., mastery of skills, ability to carry out functions).
84 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Cognitive: these goals include explicit knowledge, information
and conceptual learning about language (e.g., grammar and otl1 er
systematic aspects of communication) and about culture (e.g., about
rules of conduct, norms, values).
Affective: these include achieving positive attitudes toward the target language and culture as well as to one's own learning of them.
Transfer: these include learning how what one does or learns in the
classroom can be transferred outside of the classroom in order to
continue learning.
Denise Lawson used Stern's framework to organize the goals for her composition course. She writes the following:
[My] goals and objectives are a direct expression of my teaching
principles. As I have already mentioned, I have found formulating
goals and objectives to be the most difficult part of th~ curriculum
design process. After experimenting with different formats
(including categories based on Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, and
Awareness), I decided to use Stern (1992). This format makes
sense to me because it addresses four areas I want to emphasize:
proficiency, cultural knowledge, students' attitudes, and learning
strategies. I determined one goal each for Stern's Proficiency,
Cognitive, and Transfer categories, and two for the Affective
category. Five broad goals are appropriate and achievable for a
forty-hour course.
Denise Lawson
See Chapter 3,
page 32, for a
list of Denise's
principles.
A
fourth way to organize goals is described by Fred Genesee and John Upshur
in their book Classroom-based Evaluation in Second Language Classrooms
(1996). Their framework includes:
Language goals: language skills learners are expected to acquire in
the classroom
Strategic goals: strategies learners use to learn the language
Socioaffective goals: changes in learners' attitudes or social
behaviors that result from classroom instruction
Philosophical goals: changes in values, attitudes and beliefs of a
more general nature
Method or process goals: the activities learners will engage in
In their book, Genesee and Upshur focus on language goals, because they are
concerned with what can be evaluated by teachers. They suggest that each goal
or objective should focus on only one skill or area (e.g., reading or writing, not
both) because objectives applicable to one may not be applicable to another, and
students may attain one but not the other.
I have described four approaches to organizing goals: using your categories
for conceptualizing content, using the KASA framework, using the Stern framework, and using the Genesee and Upshur framework. You may also choose to
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES •
85
develop your own framework, which could combine elements of the above, and
add in ones that are not included.
The three frameworks above all include affective goals of some sort. Not all
teachers feel it is appropriate to state affective goals, even though they may be
implicit in their teaching. Kay Alcorn shares this view as she writes about her
approach to writing goals:
When I envisioned goals and objectives they looked similar to what
I had seen in course syllabi created by past and present professors
that detailed what we would learn, not the actual affective means by
which we would do so. I have never seen goals that state "The
students will develop a sense of community through x, y, and z."
Nor have I seen objectives that declare "The students will take risks
by means of process writing." When future administrators require
course outlines along with goals and objectives, it is my sense that
they won't expect me to include my teaching philosophy. Hopefully,
through the interviewing process and departmental lines of communication they will come to know my teaching beliefs so that I will not
need to perpetually restate them for every new course I embark on.
Kay Alcorn
El'3
Go back to your initial list of goals from Investigation 5. 7 and organize
them according to the framework you are most drawn to of the four suggested
above: your categories for conceptualizing content, the KASA framework, the
Stern framework, the Genesee and Upshur framework. You may also combine
the aspects of each framework that appeal to you.
FORMULATING OBJECTIVES
A classic work on formulating objectives is Robert Mager's 1962 book on performance objectives, written when behaviorism and stimulus-response theories
of learning were still in vogue. Mager suggests that for an objective to be useful,
it should contain three components: performance, condition, and criterion.
Performance describes what the learners will be able to do, condition describes
the circumstances in which the learners are able to something, and criterion, the
degree to which they are able to do something. To these three components,
Brown (1995) adds subject, who will be able to do something, and measure,
"how the performance will be observed or tested." (p.89) For example, look at
this objective from Brown and the five components below it.
Students at the Guangzhou English Language Center will be able
to write missing elements on the appropriate lines in a graph, chart,
or diagram from information provided in a 600-word 11th grade
reading level general science passage.
Subject: students at the GELC
Performance: write missing elements ... in a graph, chart, or diagram
from information provided in a ... passage."
86 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Conditions: on the appropriate lines ... 600 word 11th grade reading
level general science passage
Measure: to write the correct words (observable part of the objective)
Criterion: the criterion is 100%, all the missing elements
Figure 5.9: Brown's
Components of Performance Objectives, Adapted from Mager
Subject: who will achieve the objective
Performance: what the subject will be able to do
Conditions: the way in which the subject will be able to perform
Measure: the way the performance will be observed or measured
Criterion: how well the subject will be able to perform
The above approach to objectives is both useful and problematic. I find it
useful for a number of reasons. First, it proposes that objectives should communicate clearly what you want your students to achieve and it outlines how to
make them clear. Second, the subject is stated in terms of those who will
achieve the objective, in the case of a course, the students. Teachers often fall
into the trap of writing objectives from the point of view of what they will do,
not what their student will learn. Another value, as Brown points out, is that
the more specific one can be, the more useful and comprehensible the objectives will be to others.
Third, the performance is stated in terms of something the students will be
able to do. This is useful because it looks at learning as active, participatory, and
outcome based. It heads off vagueness and lack of clarity. Brown provides an
excellent list of performance verbs on page 88, drawn from Mager and adapted
from Gronlund (1985). Mager contrasts vague verbs like "know," "appreciate,"
"understand," with precise verbs like "construct," "identify," "contrast."
I find the element of performance problematic because not all learning is
observable, and much of what happens in learning is unpredictable. As Ron
White points out in his excellent analysis of behavioral objectives, "If education is viewed as a voyage of discovery, the pre-specification of outcomes inherent in behavioral objectives may be seen as conflicting with the essential speculative nature of the education process." (1988, p. 30) He goes on to quote
Skilbeck (p. 32):
The implausibility of predicting detailed performances (when
there can be unexpected outcomes) and the inherent freedom of the
learner in an educative process are not reasons for supposing that
we cannot or must not try to specify performance objectives. We
can agree that students' performances (a) cannot or should not be
pre-specified in detail and (b) are a part but not the whole of what
we mean by education, but why should either of these considerations be inconsistent with stating objectives as the directions in
which we are trying to guide student learnings?
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES "
87
Toward this end, Mager's list of verbs is helpful in focusing our thinking about
areas of learning that are not measurable. For example, instead of saying
"Students will appreciate the difference between their culture and the target culture," one can say "Students will be able to identify two differences between
their culture and the target culture and explain how they feel about them."
In describing "criterion," one states the "quality or level of performance that
will be considered acceptable" (Brown 1995, p. 23). This is useful because it
helps to set standards and to hold oneself and one's students accountable. I find
the criterion component the most problematic, however, for a number of reasons. It may be impractical for a teacher planning a course to take the time to
figure out the degree of specificity for each objective, it may "box him in" prior
to having met the students, and it may be unrealistic. One teacher who was
designing a course for hotel employees formulated an objective in this way:
"Students will be able to greet guests to the hotel with the correct use of time of
day (good morning/afternoon/evening) and correctly respond to standard greetings ("How are you?" "Nice day" etc.) three times out of four." The teacher was
trying to include a criterion by stating three times out of four; however, for the
students this would be problematic because, even though they may reach the
standard, they may fail at their jobs. What the students need is not to be able to
get it right three times out of four, but to know what to do the fourth time when
they don't get it right. An additional objective might be "Students will be able to
use a variety of strategies for repairing breakdowns in communication."
BJ
Choose one of the goals you wrote in Investigation 5.7 and write an
objective for it in which you try to use the five components from the
Performance objectives described in Figure 5.9. What was easy to write? What
was difficult to write? Why?
Iris Broudy writes about her experience trying to use Brown's framework as
she formulates the objectives for her intermediate conversation course in Mexico.
Iris Broudy
See Chapter 4 for
Broudy's insights
in conceptualizing
the content of her
course.
88 •
The issue of specificity has been rather problematic in writing
objectives. Brown (1995) says that objectives should include not
only performance (the students will be able to ... ) but also conditions and criteria. In other words, I may have an objective that says
that students will be able to use the hypothetical conditional, but
under what circumstances? Written quiz? Controlled speaking? Free
use? And by what standards? All the time? 90 percent? 50 percent?
Brown helped me to focus on what is reasonable to cover in a
twelve-week course and what degree of competence I might expect.
Being specific about how performance will be measured forces the
teacher to really pay attention to what is going on in class and to
consider whether she is "teaching to the objectives." However, such
specificity during the initial conceptualization of objectives may not
be possible, or even appropriate. In fact, "too close a specificity can
lead to suffocation of initiative and interest." (Yalden 1987, p. 105)
Yes! It can suffocate the teacher, too. I felt locked in, writing such
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
objectives as "Students will be able to give advice or warnings using
appropriate modal forms with 80 percent accuracy in doze exercises." How can I possibly determine such details before the course
begins? I would just be guessing at criteria and conditions, pulling
numbers out of the air.
My own view is that measure and criterion are probably more important
when designing an assessment plan, once you have met the students and spent
time teaching them. In other words, you might be much more specific about
measure and criterion in designing a test or setting up an assessment task like a
role play or written task, because you can tailor it to your students. Because
objectives may be based on what you perceive to be the needs of the students,
they are subject to change once you have actually met them. Additionally, you
may want (and be able) to negotiate objectives with your students, in which
case, having objectives too clearly specified in advance may make it difficult for
you to give them up. Nevertheless, a clear set of objectives, even without the
kind of detail in Figure 5.9, can be immensely helpful in designing an assessment
plan since they provide a chart of what is to be learned and therefore a basis for
what can be assessed.
Iris Broudy illustrates some of these points:
Moreover, in establishing criteria, I see an important distinction
between passive knowledge (getting it right on the exam) and true
acquisition (producing a form consistently in free use). Toward
which proficiency should the objectives be geared? Should there
be a separate objective for each? And how do I take into account
the fact that individual learners will be in different places in their
interlanguage? Learning does not suddenly jump from point A to
point Z, and that reality further complicates the task of establishing
criteria when setting objectives.
The main point here, I think, is that if my teaching is to be studentcentered, if my course is to be fluid and flexible, then the goals and
objectives must reflect that.
Denise Maksail-Fine, whose goals we saw on page 82, successfully used the
way she conceptualized content as the framework for her goals and elements of
the Mager/Brown formula as the framework for her objectives for her year-long
high school Spanish 3 course. She writes:
When it came to writing the goals and objectives for this course,
I began by thoroughly reviewing the goals of each standard and
their corresponding indicators as listed under Checkpoint B of the
New York State LOTE (Languages other than English) Standards
for Modern Languages. According to the standards, "Checkpoint
B corresponds to the level of performance that all students should
demonstrate in order to obtain a high school diploma." (page v).
Denise
Maksaii-Fine
My first step was to adapt the goals listed under each standard
so as to use them as some of the goals that form the basis of the
Spanish 3 course. Then, I adapted the performance indicators for
use as objectives for each goal where appropriate and practical.
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES "
89
My measure for what was appropriate and practical was twofold:
a) whether or not I could realistically provide students with the
resources and context essential for supporting them in working
toward achieving that objective; b) given the constraints (temporal,
linguistic, financial, etc.) of my context, whether or not I would
be capable of measuring said objective. For example, I ended up
omitting the wording "on the telephone" from objective 1.1 because
I felt that I would not only be unable to measure students' comprehension in this way, but I could not, within regularly scheduled
class time, provide students with opportunities for interaction using
the telephone medium.
My next step was to reflect on ways in which my own approach to
teaching had begun to shift and to formulate some of those changes
into goals and objectives as well. Much of this change of thinking
is reflected in Goals 3 and 4 and their accompanying objectives.
For example, as reflected in Goal 4, I really want students to work
much more cooperatively with each other than I have required
them in the past. I felt strongly enough about this requirement to
explicitly address it within the framework of the course. The objectives listed under Goal 4 illustrate my vision of what it means for
students to work together cooperatively.
I faced a few different internal struggles as I compiled and refined
the goals and objectives for this course. One of the first conflicts
I faced was taking New York State's goals and objectives for my
students and somehow investing something of myself in them in
order to make them my own. I felt that without ownership of them,
they were pretty much useless to me. This is because I have found
that unless I am invested in something and I value it, I have a
difficult time effectively teaching it.
I was able to derive some personal investment from the state's goals
and objectives by modifying them to outline more clearly what I
perceived as appropriate and practical for my students. This process
of refinement also assisted me in reconciling my second internal
conflict, which centered on whether or not the state's goals and
objectives were realistic and appropriate given my teaching context.
See Denise
Maksaii-Fine's
mind map
in Chapter 4,
page 61.
90 •
Another conflict I faced focused on how much to include in the
goals and objectives (I wanted to include EVERYTHING) and
to what degree of specificity. This has been an ongoing struggle
throughout this entire curriculum design process. Being a perfectionist, I did not want to leave anything out, nor did I want to be
too vague. Given the fact that this course spans an entire academic
year (i.e., forty weeks), I really had to work to feel comfortable
with leaving the minute details to the unit and lesson planning
levels. As a final comment, I think that it is important to note that
by working through the aforementioned struggles, I emerged and
remain satisfied with the resulting course goals and objectives.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Below are the two New York State standards for Languages other than
English (LOTE) and Denise's first goal and objectives. Her complete list of goals
and objectives can be found in Appendix 5-2 on page 242.
Figure 5.10:
The First Goal and Objectives for Spanish 3
NYS LOTE Standard 1: Students will be able to use a language other than
English for communication.
NYS LOTE Standard 2: Students will develop cross-cultural skills and
understandings.
Goal1: Students will be able to utilize the skills of listening and speaking
for the purposes of: socializing, providing and obtaining information,
expressing personal feelings and opinions, persuading others to adopt a
course of action, in the targeted topic* areas, by:
Objectives**
Students will be able to:
1.1. comprehend messages and short conversations when listening to
peers, familiar adults, and providers of public services in face-to-face
interactions
1.2 understand the main idea and some discrete information in television
and radio or live presentations
1.3 initiate and sustain conversations, face-to-face, with native speakers
or fluent individuals
1.4 select vocabulary appropriate to a range of topics, employing simple
and complex sentences in present, past, or future time frames, and
expressing details and nuances by using appropriate modifiers
1.5 exhibit spontaneity in their interactions, particularly when the topic
is familiar, but often relying on familiar utterances.
''targeted topic areas: personal identification, house/home, services/repairs,
family life, community and neighborhood, physical environment, mealtaking,
health/welfare, education, earning a living, leisure, public and private services,
shopping, travel, current events.
''*criterion: student-produced written work and spoken utterances must be of the
level that they can be understood by a native speaker of the L2, who speaks no
English, but is used to dealing with non-native L2 speakers and writers.
B!!l
Take one of Maksail-Fine's objectives and analyze it according to the
framework in Figure 5.9 on performance objectives. Which components are
included? Which are not included? Do you feel that the objectives are clear as
they stand? Would you modify them in any way? Why? What do you like about
Maksail-Fine's approach to goals and objectives? What don't you like? Why?
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES "
91
Another way to formulate objectives is to use a framework developed by
Saphier and Gower (1987). Saphier and Gower's cumulative framework includes
coverage, activity, involvement, mastery, and generic thinking objectives.
Coverage objectives describe the material (textbook units, topics, curriculum
items) to be covered in the course. They point out that, unfortunately, that is the
way in which many teachers (and administrators) view a given course: it "covers" the material in Book 2, or the items on the curriculum list, irrespective of
whether the students actually learn the material. Activity objectives describe what
the students will do with the material. For example, fill out a worksheet or
answer comprehension questions about a reading. Involvement objectives
describe how the students will become engaged in working with the material. For
example, make up their own comprehension questions about a reading and give
to peers to answer. Mastery objectives (also called learning objectives) describe
what the students will be able to do as a result of a given class or activity. For
example, to use and describe two different reading strategies. Generic thinking
objectives (which I also call critical thinking objectives) describe the meta-cognitive problem-solving skills the students will acquire. For example, to explain how
they decide which reading strategies are appropriate for which texts.
Figure 5.11:
Saphier and Gower's Cumulative Framework for Objectives
coverage: the material that will be covered in the unit, lesson
activity: what students will do in a unit, lesson
involvement: how students will become engaged in what they do in
the unit, lesson
mastery: what students will be able to do as a result of the unit,
lesson
generic thinking: how students will be able to problem solve or critique
in the unit, lesson
Denise Lawson used the Stern categories for her goals and the Saphier and
Gower framework for her objectives for her advanced composition course.
She writes:
Denise Lawson
The objectives are listed under the categories: Activity, Involvement,
Mastery, and Critical Thinking. An additional category, "Coverage"
suggested by Saphier and Gower, was not appropriate for my purposes here because it relates to material covered, such as chapters in
a textbook. In place of a textbook I have prepared a diverse list of
materials (including literature, films, and songs) that will be selected
as writing prompts by the students; as a result, I do not have specific
"Coverage" objectives.
Below are her first goal and the objectives. For the complete set of goals and
objectives, consult Appendix 5-3 on page 244.
92
° DESIGNING
LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 5.12: First Goal and Objectives for an Advanced Composition Course
I. Proficiency
Students will develop effective writing skills transferable to any context.
Activity
1111
1111
111
Students will use a five-step process writing model to write three
paragraphs: descriptive, personal narrative (memory), and expository;
two essays; and a group research paper.
Students will use assessment forms to evaluate their own and their
peers' writing.
The five steps
in the process:
brainstorm,
draft, revise,
edit, publish.
Students will annotate their reading and maintain reading logs.
Involvement
1111
111
Students will develop criteria for a well-written paragraph, essay, and
short research paper.
Students will work with peers to generate ideas, get feedback, and to
write a research paper.
Mastery
1111
1111
Students will be able to use the process writing model.
Students will be able to assess writing (their own and others') based
on criteria for good writing.
Critical thinking
1111
Students will be able to determine and articulate characteristics of a
well-written paragraph, essay, and short research paper
mJ
What do you like about Denise Lawson's approach to goals and objectives? What don't you like? How would you adapt the approach? Why?What are
the similarities and differences between Denise Lawson's and Denise Mal<.sailFine's way of stating objectives?
'd like to conclude with both encouragement and caveats. Goals and objectives
are not cast in cement. The image of cement alone conjures up something fixed
and immovable, which are not good qualities of goals and objectives. They are
an informed guess at what you hope to accomplish given what you know about
your context, your students' needs, your beliefs about how people learn, and
your experience with the particular content. As you teach the course, you will
have the opportunity to test the goals and objectives and to modify and adapt
them accordingly. Therefore, goals and objectives should be dynamic and flexible. If you are developing ones for a new course, they will probably become
clearest once the course is over and you can look back at what you and your students were and were not able to do. You should be as complete in describing
I
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES •
93
goals and objectives as you can, however, because they can provide a guide for
the materials and assessment tools you develop. When I read over a teacher's
goals and objectives, I have a clear idea of what the course is about, what the
students will learn, and what is important to the teacher about what and how
they will learn.
Below is a summary of guidelines to consider when formulating goals and
objectives:
1. Goals should be general, but not vague.
2. Goals should be transparent. Don't use jargon.
3. A course is successful and effective if the goals have been reached.
Try this "formula" for your goals: if we accomplish [goal], will the
course be successful?
4. Goals should be realistic. They shouldn't be what you want to achieve,
but what you can achieve. They should be achievable within the time
frame of the course with that group of students.
5. Goals should be relatively simple. Unpack them and make them into
more than one goal, if necessary.
6. Goals should be about something the course will explicitly address
in some way. In other words, you will spend class time to achieve
that goal.
7. Objectives should be more specific than goals. They are in a hierarchical
relationship to goals.
8. Objectives should directly relate to the goals. Ask yourself:
"Will achieving 'x' objective help to reach 'y' goal?"
9. Objectives and goals should be in a cause-effect relationship:
"if objective, then goal."
10. Objectives should focus on what students will learn (e.g., students will
be able to write a term paper) and/or processes associated with it (e.g.,
be able to make an outline), not simply on the activity (e.g., students
will write a term paper).
11. 0 bjectives are relatively short term. Goals are relatively long term.
12. There should be more objectives than goals. However, one objective
may be related to more than one goal.
13. Don't try to pack too much into one objective. Limit each objective to a
specific skill or language area.
14. The goals and objectives give a sense of the syllabus of the course.
Objectives are like the building blocks of the syllabus.
15. A clear set of goals and objectives provides the basis for evaluation of
the course (goals) and assessment of student learning (objectives).
94. •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
16. Both goals and objectives should be stated in terms of the learner. You
may, however, have specific, separate goals for yourself as a teacher.
17. Your course may have two or three layers of goals and objectives, each
more specific, depending on the length and nature of your course. The
point is for you to have a clear and purposeful vision of your course.
EJB
Write up your goals and related objectives in a way that makes sense and
is useful to you. After you have written them, consider how you could convey
the information they contain in a memo or letter to your students.
Suggested Readings
The literature on goals and objectives is not very teacher-friendly-goals and
objectives are explained, but examples to illustrate them are sparse. The best
and most comprehensive examples I've seen of how goals relate to objectives are
in the Australian Language Level (ALL) Guidelines, which were developed for
primary and secondary school teachers in Australia. Pocket ALL (1996) is a
guide to how the guidelines can be used as a basis for developing a course and
provides examples of goals and objectives within syllabus modules and "units of
work" within those modules.
For more on performance-based objectives, see Brown's chapter on goals and
objectives in his book, The Elements of Language Curriculum (1995). He presents the pros and cons of those types of objectives, although he clearly favors
them. He also provides examples of goals and objectives developed for a program in China and a program in Hawaii.
Designing A Seventh-Grade Social Studies Course for ESL Students at an
International School by Pat Fisher (1996) describes how she successfully grapples with the process of putting together goals and objectives for her course.
FORMULATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES •
95
6
AssESSING NEEDS
m
In your experiences as a learner, have you ever been invited to express
your learning needs? If no, why not? If yes, what was your reaction? What
was the result?
eri Manning's experience with needs assessment, which she describes below, is
in many ways typical of teachers who are exploring how to work with it in
systematic ways. Her description serves as a point of departure for the chapter,
because she raises interesting issues about the hows, whats, and whens of needs
assessment. She describes her experience during her teaching practicum.
J
Prior to doing my MA, I had done needs assessment only on an
informal level. My needs assessment was done through my own
observations, and by asking students for oral input on what they
would like to do in class. Because I taught the same students for a
year or more, we had a level of trust that allowed them to give me
honest feedback.
Needs assessment is also
called needs
analysis.
Jeri Manning
In my MA courses, I learned more about needs assessment. During
my internship at an intensive English program in Boston, I decided
to try doing a couple of written needs assessments with my students.
I observed my mentor's class during the month of January and
taught my own class in February. One of the needs assessments that
I adopted was one that my mentor had used. The curriculum for
each level has so many items in it that no teacher could cover it all
in one month. I gave the students a copy of the curriculum and
asked them to mark the points they were most interested in learning.
Then I tallied the answers, to give me a guideline of students' interests and perceived needs. One concern that I had, however, was that
students would be overwhelmed by all the information on the sheet.
However, this did not seem to be the case. I also did formal needs
assessments that dealt with students' learning styles and knowledge
of grammar.
The needs assessments did give me useful information about my
students, which helped me to shape the curriculum as the month
progressed. There are points that I would change, however. First,
I think it was a mistake to give three written forms of needs assessment in the first two days. It felt like too much paper coming at the
students at once. In fact, I had one more needs assessment that I
decided not to use. I felt torn, however, because students were only
there for one month, and I wanted to be as responsive to them as
AssEssiNG NEEDs " 97
possible. If I had the course to do over, I would space the needs
assessments out, relax, and rely on my observation skills more.
Another change that I would make would be to integrate needs
assessment into the lesson plan, so that it becomes an integral part
of the lesson, rather than an interruption in the flow. By doing that,
I would hope that in addition to making the class flow smoothly,
students would feel more willing to give honest feedback, especially
given that a month is not a lot of time for students to learn that
you really do want their honest feedback. Essentially, I want to
develop needs assessments that will be an effective use of class time
for students and give me the information I need to structure an
effective course.
£m
Write a short description of your experience with needs assessment as a
teacher. What have you assessed? Did you get the information you wanted?
What did you do with the information? Was your experience similar to Jeri
Manning's? Then consider the course you are designing, redesigning, or adapting as you read through this book (See Chapter 1, Investigation 1.4). What
questions do you have about needs assessment with respect to the course? Use
the questions to guide you as you read the chapter.
Jeri Manning's narrative touches on four important areas that we will explore
in this chapter. The first is the role of needs assessment in the development of a
course. The second is the areas of learning needs assessment addresses. The third
is when one should do needs assessment The fourth is how teachers can do
needs assessment in ways that students understand, that are a good use of students' and the teacher's time, and that give the teacher information that allows
him or her to be responsive to students' needs.
THE ROLE OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF A COURSE
Essentially, needs assessment is a systematic and ongoing process of gathering
information about students' needs and preferences, interpreting the information, and then making course decisions based on the interpretation in order to
meet the needs. It is an orientation toward the teaching learning process which
views it as a dialogue between people: between the teacher and administrators,
parents, other teachers; between the teacher and learners; among the learners.
It is based on the belief that learning is not simply a matter of learners absorbing pre-selected knowledge the teacher gives them, but is a process in which
learners-and others-can and should participate. It assumes that needs are
multi-faceted and changeable. When needs assessment is used as an ongoing
part of teaching, it helps the learners to reflect on their learning, to identify
their needs, and to gain a sense of ownership and control of their learning. It
establishes learning as a dialogue between the teacher and the learners and
among the learners.
98 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Derica Griffiths expresses such a view of her needs assessment questionnaire
for high school ESL students in a content-based history class:
... I use this.[ questionnaire] to convey to the students that I do
care about them as individuals, and they do have a role and voice
in the class. I feel the questionnaire is my first attempt to facilitate
them in the expression of their voice. This is important to me as
a teacher because I feel that a class is a community and as such,
should be inclusive of all voices and opinions.
Derica Griffiths
eeing needs assessment as a form of dialogue is not the way I originally
understood it. My first encounter with needs assessment as a formal undertaking was reading through Munby's 1978 book, Communicative Syllabus
Design, in which he outlined numerous and detailed specifications for determining learners' needs. I was teaching English in Japan at the time, primarily to
Japanese employees of a US-Japanese joint venture company. As a language
teacher, I wondered how I would ever be able to get so much information, and if
I could, what I would do with it. The lists and level of detail scared me off. In
fact, had I known then what I know now about needs assessment, I believe I
could have designed and taught a more focused and responsive course. Some
years later, when I was writing the East West series, my co-authm~ David Rein,
and I found the needs assessment inventories developed by the Council of
Europe (VanEk 1986) for planning language programs to be an extremely useful tool in conceptualizing and organizing the content of the series.
Needs assessment has been an important feature of ESP (English for Specific
Purposes), EAP (English for Academic Purposes), and adult education courses.
While much has been written about program needs assessment (e.g., Berwick
1989, Brindley 1989, Brown 1995), adult education has taken the lead in looking at needs assessment as part of teaching, not something done only prior to
teaching (e.g., Burnaby 1989, Savage 1993). In my experience as a teacher and
with teachers, for needs assessment to be meaningful at the course level, it needs
to be understood as something that teachers can see and do as part of teaching.
I remember a conversation with a teacher from Honduras to whom I had
given a copy of David Nunan's Designing Tasks for the Communicative
Classroom (1989). She came to my office in a state of panic. She used her
hands to describe her feeling that the ground was shifting under her feet and
she could no longer maintain her balance. The book suggested that she invite
learners to give input into the design of activities, and she didn't see how this
was possible or even a good idea. She mainly taught pre-teens and teenagers, so
she had a point. But the conversation was really about a shift in her perception
of the role of the learners and the teacher in the classroom. I think that needs
assessment, as I have described it above, is one place in the development of a
course in which a teacher must examine how she or he views the roles and
power dynamic in the classroom.
The teacher is not the only person who has views about the roles and power
dynamic in the classroom or the needs of the learners. The students themselves
will have expectations that may not include being asked to express their needs
S
ASSESSING NEEDS •
99
or to be partners in decision making. In fact, they may see it as clearly the
teacher's role to make decisions about what to teach. If partnership and dialogue are at the root of one's view of needs assessment, then it must be done in
such a way that students feel skillful in participating and see the value of it, both
while doing it and in the results. Likewise, teachers need to learn how to feel
skillful in conducting and responding to needs assessment.
What can happen in the classroom is also affected and determined by the
institution the class is a part of, and by other stakeholders, such as parents and
ftmders, depending on the setting. Needs assessment can be as much about reconciling different views as about finding out what the needs are. Berwick, for
example, makes a distinction between "felt needs," those the learners have, and
"perceived needs," the way the needs are viewed by the teacher, the institution
and other stakeholders (1989, p. 55). Even when needs assessment only involves
the teacher and learners it is still a complex undertaking because different learners within the same class usually have somewhat different needs.
THE PROCESS OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT
The process of needs assessment involves a set of decisions, actions, and reflections, that are cyclical in nature:
1. Deciding what information to gather and why
2. Deciding the best way to gather it: when, how and from whom
3. Gathering the information
3. Interpreting the information
4. Acting on the information
II
5. Evaluating the effect and effectiveness of the action
,,I)
6. (back to 1) Deciding on further or new information to gather
This process can be viewed as a cycle as depicted in Figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: The Needs Assessment Cycle
1. Decide what information
to gather and why \
6. Evaluate the effects
2. Decide when, from whom,
of the action \
and
5. Act on it
3. Gather information
~rpretit~
100
° DESIGNING
LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
iow to gather it
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The view of needs assessment as a process of gathering information and interpreting it is very close to Kathi Bailey's definition of assessment in her book in
this series, Learning About Language Assessment (1998, p.2). She writes, "The
main purpose of language assessment is to help us gain the information we need
about our students' abilities and to do so in a manner that is appropriate, consistent, and conducive to learning." Needs assessment and language assessment
overlap when needs assessment is concerned with assessment of language ability, as in assessing proficiency at the start of a course, or when diagnosing language needs as part of ongoing needs assessment. Needs assessment also overlaps with course evaluation when it gathers information about how the way the
course has been designed and is being conducted is or is not meeting the needs of
the students so that unmet needs can be addressed. In Chapter 10, we will focus
on designing an overall assessment plan for the course, which includes needs
assessment, assessment of learning, and course evaluation.
WHAT AREAS OF LEARNING DOES NEEDS ASSESSMENT ADDRESS?
In the cycle in Figure 6.1, the first step is deciding what information to gather.
When designing and teaching a course to meet students' needs, we assume that
there is a gap to be bridged between a current state and a desired one, or
progress to be made toward a desired goal, or a change to be made. The purpose
of the course is to bridge the gap or some part of it, to help students make
progress or to effect the desired change. For a course to meet learners' needs it is
necessary to gather information about both the current state of the learners,
where they stand in terms of language ability, learning preferences, and the
desired goals or change, and where they would like to be or what they want to
achieve, change, and so on. The cycle in Figure 6.1 can be repeated throughout
the course at various times, depending on what you-and the learners-want to
know. Figure 6.2 below shows the relationship between the purpose of a course
and the purpose of needs assessment.
Figure 6.2: Basic Purpose of Needs Assessment
Purpose of course:
learners• abilities,
attitudes, preferences
before course
-------to make------+ desired
progress toward
abilities /change
outcome
Purpose of needs assessment:
to gather
info~ J \_
about
to _Lnnation about
in order to make decisions about what will be taught,
how it will be taught, and how it will be evaluated.
AssESSING NEEDS •
101
OJ
What information could you gather about your learners prior to or at the
beginning of the course? What information could you gather about the desired
learning or improvement the course is supposed to bring about? Who can you
gather the information from?
T
he list below (Figure 6.3) outlines information that can be gathered for the
left side of the chart in Figure 6.2, learners' abilities, attitudes, and preferences now; and the right side of the chart, desired abilities and/or change.
Numbers 1 through 6 are a list of what learners bring to a course or program.
Numbers 7 through 10 are a list of where they would like to be or what they
want to make progress toward. As the course progresses, the information
about the "present" will change as the learners make progress toward the
"future." Information can be gathered about how the course is or is not meeting the needs negotiated, both in what is being taught and how it is being
taught. Needs related to the "future" may also change as the course progresses.
Figure 6.3: Types of Information that Can Be Gathered when Assessing Needs
We can gather information about:
The present:
1. Who the learners are
2. The learners' level of language proficiency
3. The learners' level of intercultural competence
4. Their interests
5. Their learning preferences
6. Their attitudes
The future:
7. The learners' [or others involved] goals and expectations
8. The target contexts: situations, roles, topics, and content
9. Types of communicative skills they will need and tasks
they will perform.
10. Language modalities they will use
D) Before reading the information below, take a moment to look over the list
in Figure 6.3. What information will each item yield and how might it be helpful in understanding and planning for students' needs?
102
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After reading about each type of information, make a preliminary list of the
information you feel you would like to gather for the course you are designing.
Information about the present
1. Who the learners are
What is their age, gender, educational background, profession, nationality? Is it
a multicultural or single culture group? What languages do they speak?
This information can help provide the background for the remaining questions; for example, we will ask for or interpret information differently if the students are children or adults, literate in their first language or not, of mixed
nationality or of one nationality.
2. The learners' level of language proficiency
What is their level of proficiency in each of the four skills in the target language-speaking, listening, reading, writing? With respect to grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functional skills? Are they literate in their own language?
This information can help to make choices about the kinds of texts to use,
which skills to develop, which elements of grammar to emphasize and so on.
3. The learners' level of intercultural competence
What is their experience in the target or in other cultures? What is their level of
understanding and skills with respect to sociocultural and sociolinguistic aspects
of the target language and differences with their own language?
This information can help to make choices about the kind of material to use,
and the sociolinguistic and sociocultural skills to develop and emphasize.
4. Their interests
What topics or issues are they interested in? What kinds of personal and professional experience do they bring?
This information can help teachers to gear the course toward students'
experience and interests. In the absence of specific target needs (see #8 and #9
below), it can help teachers design the course around topics that will engage
the learners.
5. Their learning preferences
How do the learners expect to be taught and tested? How do they prefer to
learn? How well do they work in groups? What role do they expect the teacher
to take? What roles do they expect to take?
This information can help teachers to know whether the learners will be comfortable with certain kinds of activities, or will need to be taught how to do
them; for example, how to work cooperatively with each other. It will help to
know how to set up activities, or what kinds of bridges will need to be built
between students' expectations of how they should learn and the teacher's
approach and beliefs.
6. Their attitudes
What is their attitude toward themselves as learners? What is their attitude
toward the target language and culture?
AssESSING NEEDS •
103
This information can help teachers to know whether the learners feel confident about using the target language, are comfortable with making mistakes,
feel positive about being in the classroom.
Information about what the learners need to learn, want to change
7. The learners' [or others' involved] goals and expectations
Why are they taking the course? What are their goals? What do they expect
to learn?
This information can help to shape goals and also to alert learners to what is
realistic within the constraints of the course.
8. The target contexts: situations, roles, topics, and content
In what situations will they use English beyond the classroom? Who will they
use English with? What topics will they need to be able to communicate about
or what content will they need to know? For example, if they are university students, will they be in lectures, seminars, dormitories? If they are business people,
with whom will they transact business and about what? If they are immigrants,
where and with whom will they use the target language?
9. Types of communicative skills they need and tasks they will perform
For what purposes are they using the language? Will they need to understand
and give directions? Will they need to give and get information on the telephone? Will they be listening to lectures? Will they need to persuade clients?
Will they be talking to their children's teachers?
1:
I
I
\
10. Language modalities they will use
Do they need to speak, read, listen, and/or write in the target language?
I
I'
The areas outlined above will yield both objective information about the students and subjective information ( Brindley 1989, Nunan 1988). Objective
information includes facts about who the learners are, their language ability,
and what they need the language for. Subjective information includes attitudes
and expectations the learners have with respect to what and how they will learn.
Subjective information is important because if you don't take it into account, the
objective information may be useless. For example, if your learners are expecting you to stand at the front of the class and answer their questions, and you put
them in small groups and ask them to find their own answers, they may feel very
uncomfortable in your classroom and unable or unwilling to learn in that wayat least initially-regardless of how appropriate the content is. Or, if your students have expectations that they will make a vast improvement in a short period of time, and your course has more modest goals, you will need to help them
reach more realistic expectations.
1:I
I,
m
In the list of kinds of information that can be gathered outlined in Figure
6.3, which numbers will yield information about objective needs and which
about subjective needs? How might each type of information help you?
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You will not necessarily be able to get all the information listed above. In an
EFL setting there are often no clear-cut needs for using English outside of the
classroom for a given group of students, and so the teacher cannot base the
course on needs that don't exist. In that case, I feel it is crucial to find out about
their interests and backgrounds and to build the syllabus around that information, so that they will be engaged. When I was first in Japan, I taught a group of
housewives for whom the study of English was a hobby. They did not have plans
to use English outside of the room in which we met. I tried to assess their proficiency so that I could gear the lesson to their level, and find out what their interests were so that they would have something to talk about. The situation was
quite different when, recently, I taught a group of adult immigrants in my town.
We readily came up with a list of immediate target contexts and communicative
needs for their English: how to use the bank, how to interact in a parent-teacher
conference, how to talk on the telephone, how to read the store flyers with
information about sales, how to engage in small talk on the bus to class.
Another distinction I have found useful is between target needs-what students need to learn and for what purposes, and learning needs-how they expect
to learn, what motivates them as learners (Hutchinson and Waters 1986). These
areas need to be in harmony so that the ways the students are asked to learn keep
them sufficiently engaged so that they can learn what it is they are supposed to
learn. This is as true in an ESL setting as in an EFL setting. In the class of adult
immigrants I mentioned above, they told me that they wanted to learn about how
the English language was structured. My initial reaction was that they were basing this need on their previous schooling, which had emphasized learning the
rules of grammar, and that more work on those rules would not help them
improve their actual output, their spoken and written English, which I perceived
as their primary need. They viewed their target needs as structure-based. I viewed
their target needs as task-, skills- and participation-based-practice with using
the telephone or understanding how to participate in a parent-teacher conference. However, the same grammatical errors kept recurring. I started having
them reflect on examples of the language they generated to derive their own
rules. For the first time, the way the language worked made sense to them. I realized the key was to figure out what their learning needs were (to understand how
the language "works"), so that they could meet their target needs.
The list in Figure 6.3 is designed to help teachers see the choices they have in
determining which information to gather. You cannot assess everything all at
once-trying to do so provides too much data and can be overwhelming for the
students and for the teacher-and so it is important to make choices about
what to assess.
SOME FACTORS THAT CAN GUIDE YOUR CHOICES
The purpose of the course. It is important to gather information that is relevant
to the purpose(s) of the course. An assessment of students' writing skills would
not be a priority in a course whose purpose was to improve their oral skills. If
you know that students don't have immediate needs for the L2 outside of the
classroom, as was the case with the Japanese housewives I taught, then assessing
the target contexts could be confusing to them. One teacher, Kay Alcorn,
AssESSING NEEDs •
105
describes how she changed the focus of her needs assessment because she realized
it would not give her information pertinent to the course she was teaching. Her
course was for Mexican students studying English for the tourism industry. In her
original needs assessment she had listed such questions as "What past experience
has taught you an important life lesson? What did it teach you?" "Describe your
favorite place. What do you do there? How does it make you feel?" and "Who
do you admire? Why? Would you like to be more like this person?"
She writes:
The questions that I formulated were intended to be on a handout
which students could draw from all semester and answer in their
dialogue journal. I intended to introduce it approximately 3 weeks
into the semester once students were comfortable communicating
with me. After much reflection I realized that what I was after was
self serving and really had no relation to teaching English for the
tourism industry. I realized I needed to find ways to know my students better through other means that were much more pertinent to
the subject matter and goals for the course.
Kay Alcorn
Your beliefs. For example, if you believe that language is learned through
interaction, then you will probably want to assess students' learning styles and
attitudes in order to know how skilled or disposed they are to working in groups.
Information you already have about the students. For example, students may
have already provided a writing sample for a placement test or you may already
have information about the target contexts and communicative skills they will
need. In such cases, you don't need to reinvent the wheel unless you need more
specific information about the type of writing they can do or about the types of
writing they need to learn.
Finally, you should only gather information that you know you can use. I
have seen teachers get excited about the idea that needs assessment can help
them learn about their students' needs and tailor the course to those needs. They
then try to get too much information in too short a time and are overwhelmed
with the data and unsure of what to do with it. For that reason, it makes sense
to choose only a few types of information initially and to learn how to use it
effectively so that your students see the value in it. This will help you to build
the trust that Jeri Manning mentions at the beginning of the chapter.
Below, we will look at two different needs assessment plans, one for a writing course and one for an adult education course. Each teacher made different
choices about what to assess based on who the students were, the type of
course, and her or his beliefs. The first is Denise Lawson's needs assessment
plan for her advanced composition class at a university extension program in
the United States.
·I•
II
IIJ
Which of the ten areas in Figure 6.3 did Denise choose to focus on? What
appeals to you about Denise's needs assessment plan? What doesn't appeal to
you? Why?
106
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DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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Figure 6.4: Denise Lawson's Needs Assessment Plan for Advanced
Composition Course
1. Letter to students
Denise Lawson
I will introduce the importance of feedback in my introductory letter.
(See the letter in Appendix 6-1 on page 247.)
2. Writing case history
As the homework assignment for the first day of class, students will write
"case histories" of their experiences, writing in their native language and
in English. This exercise raises students' awareness about the affective
domain in regard to writing, and how their progress might be influenced by
their attitudes and prior experiences. It establishes a baseline against which
students can measure any changes in attitude throughout the course.
See page 32 for
a list of Denise's
principles and
page 244 for
her goals and
objectives.
3. Personal goals and objectives
Students will set three to five goals for the course and track their progress
in a daybook.
4. Questionnaires: initial, midterm, final
1111
Initial: In the first week, students will answer short survey questions
about possible goals for the course to prepare them to write their own
goals and objectives.
I
L
111
11111
Midterm: The midterm questionnaire prompts students to reflect on
progress toward meeting their course goals.
Final: Students assess their progress toward reaching their goals, and
the usefulness of various aspects of the course (materials, activities,
teacher feedback, etc.) in helping them reach them.
5. Anonymous feedback cards
In order to encourage students to respond honestly, it is important to
include opportunities to provide anonymous feedback. Students unaccustomed to criticizing teachers may feel more comfortable commenting
on unsigned cards. In my experience, asking students to answer a few
questions on index cards is a quick, easy, and non-threatening way to
check in with students on how the class is going.
6. In-class discussions
It is also important to have in-class discussions regarding students'
responses to the course. It provides students the opportunity to hear their
peers' views; in addition, the popcorn quality of dialogue may generate
some new ideas.
7. Student-teacher conferences
As a student, I benefited enormously from teacher-student conferences
and, as much as possible, would like to make them a part of my teaching
as well. 1 plan to dedicate half of two midterm classes to one-on-one
conferences during class, with the emphasis on students' progress toward
their goals. 1 would offer an optional follow-up conference shortly before
the end of the course.
AssESSING NEEDS "
107
See Chapter 10
about designing
an assessment
plan.
See Gorsuch
(1991) "Helping
Students Create
Their Own
Learning Goals."
'~
'I
lj
<\
rj
Denise has devised a plan that spans the course, not just the beginning of the
course, so that she can fine-tune and adjust the course as she teaches it. In this
way, it is part of her overall assessment plan. The student goal setting is an
important part of the course. In effect, students are individually defining their
needs by setting the goals for their writing. Having students set goals is one way
for them to define their needs. One problem is that students may never have
done this before and will not know how to do it. Chris Conley, whose needs
assessment plan follows, told me that when he introduced a goal-setting exercise
the first time he taught an adult education class, the students didn't know what
"goal" meant. Even when he explained its meaning, they were not sure how
they could answer it. For this reason, students need to be given support and
guidance in how to set goals.
Denise will also need to let students know whether the goals the students have
set are realistic within the context of the course. An important aspect of needs
assessment is what you do with expectations that you know cannot be met
because they are unrealistic, because there are too many, because there is not
enough time in the course, or because the course is focused on something different. Teachers have three choices in responding to students' expressions of expectations or needs. One is to act on them. Another is not to act on them, but to let
students know why. (If you do not explain why you are not acting on them, students will assume you are ignoring what they have said and will not see the value
in letting you know their expectations.) A third is to think about how to include
them in your course at a later date. Again, it is important to let students know
that you are planning to act on the information at a later time. Each response
treats the input as valuable and part of an ongoing dialogue with the students.
The second needs assessment plan is one Chris Conley designed for his adult
education course for immigrants in the United States. The students are from a
variety of countries and are at an intermediate level of proficiency in English.
OJ
Which of the ten areas in Figure 6.3 did Chris choose to focus on? What
appeals to you about Chris's needs assessment plan? What doesn't appeal to
you? Why?
Figure 6.5:
Chris Conley's Needs Assessment Plan for Adult Education Class
1. "Find someone who . .. "
Chris Conley
108 •
In this activity students develop questions to ask each other and find
people in the class who answer "yes" to the questions. This activity can
assess students' linguistic abilities re forming questions, asking and
answering them orally, and also assess their pronunciation. I can learn
something about their learning styles in how they work in pairs to create
questions, how they feel about creating their own questions, and how
comfortable they are mingling with the whole class to find people to
answer the questions. (See Appendix 6-2 on page 249) for the activity.)
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
2. Letter of Explanation
This letter explains what we will be doing in the course, my initial
expectations, student/teacher roles, and a description of the approach.
(See Appendix 6-3 on page 250 for the letter.)
See Chris's flow
charts on pages
67-69.
3. Mind-mapping
1give a word that is somewhat loaded like "class," "teacher," "student,"
"home," "food," "America," and have them do a group mind map around
the word. I can assess students' capacity to generate words, their
vocabulary, and the freedom or lack of freedom they feel in speaking
out in class. I can also turn this mind-map into a discussion or writing
exercise in order to assess spoken or written abilities.
4. Paragraph about self
The students and I write a paragraph about ourselves to share with
the class.
5. Participatory cycle
The cycle is a form of ongoing needs assessment because it is based
on students' needs. The teacher listens for issues the students face,
an issue is addressed, teacher and student negotiate their language
needs with respect to the issue as well as how to resolve it (or not)
through action of some kind.
See pages
143-144 for
an explanation
of the cycle.
OJ Look over the initial list you made in Investigation 6.4. Given the purpose
of the course you are designing, your beliefs about what is important, what you
already know about your students, and what you feel you will be able to act on,
modify the list to reflect the information you wish to gather.
,,
The information described in the categories in Figure 6.3 can be gathered
within the context of the classroom, but is also affected by the larger framework of the institution and community in which the course is being taught. As
pointed out earlier, needs assessment is a process of reconciling competing
needs and views of what should be taught and how. Students within a class
may have different needs, the teacher's view of what needs to be learned and
how may not match the students' expectations, the institution's view of what
needs to be learned may be at odds with the teacher's. Reconciling these views
necessitates finding out what they are, as well as finding ways to communicate
and bridge differences.
Sarah Benesch (1996) has challenged the assumption that when assessing target needs for EAP or ESP courses, the context in which English will be used is a
given. Such a view presumes that the point of needs assessment is to get information about the context so that one can prepare the student for it. She advocates what she calls "Critical Needs Analysis." She illustrates critical needs
analysis with an example from her teaching. She taught an adjunct ESL course
for students taking a university psychology course. Rather than accept the way
AssESSING NEEDS "
!<~
1:
109
the psychology course was conducted as a given, she analyzed the limitations of
the target situation, and identified three: The course was held in a huge lecture
hall and students felt unable to interrupt the lecturer in order to ask questions or
seek clarification. The amount of material covered was unmanageable for the
students. The tests were multiple choice. Benesch contacted the professor and
was able to bring about two changes. He agreed to answer written questions,
which students prepared collaboratively after a lecture, at the beginning of the
following lecture. He also visited their ESL class to discuss their questions in a
more informal setting conducive to real dialogue.
The participatory process that Chris Conley outlines also assumes that students should not necessarily accept the status quo of the target situation but
work together to figure out ways to make it work for them.
ISIJ
Who are the stakeholders in your course? Who, other than the students,
can or should you consult with respect to your students' needs? Do you anticipate areas of conflict? How can they be resolved?
WHEN SHOULD ONE Do NEEDS AssESSMENT?
There are three time frames for gathering information: pre-course, initial, and
ongoing. They are complementary, not exclusive.
Pre-course needs assessment takes place prior to the start of the course and
can inform decisions about content, goals and objectives, activities, and choice
of materials. Generally, assessment activities that determine placement are done
at the program level so that students can be placed in the right course at the
right level. Pre-course needs assessment activities may be diagnostic and help to
pinpoint specific areas of strengths and weaknesses and thus help to determine
what needs to be addressed in a given course. They may gather information
about learners' target needs and thus help determine the content of the course,
which language items, skills, etc. will be taught; as well as which materials and
texts should be used. They may gather information about students' learning
needs and thus help determine what kinds of activities will be used. Teachers
who are able to gather information prior to teaching a course can use it to plan
the course so that it is responsive to students' needs right from the first day of
class. In many cases, however, teachers do not meet their students prior to teaching them, and so must rely on initial and ongoing needs assessment to allow
them to be responsive to their learners' needs.
Initial needs assessment takes place during the initial stage of a course, the
first few sessions, the first week or weeks, depending on the time frame of the
course. The kinds of information gathered prior to teaching a course can also be
gathered during the first few class sessions.
Ongoing needs assessment takes place throughout the course. One advantage of ongoing needs assessment is that it is grounded in shared experiences
and thus can be focused on changing the course as it progresses. It helps to
determine whether what is being taught, how it is being taught, and how it is
being evaluated, are effective for the students. You may need to change or
110 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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adjust the content, the materials, and the objectives, depending on what you
find out in ongoing needs assessment. Students are asked to reflect on something they have done, and to base their assessment and suggestions on these
concrete experiences. For example, questions about how students learn may be
easier to answer once they have a variety of learning experiences to reflect on.
In order for ongoing assessment to work, however, it must be geared toward
those aspects of teaching you can change. An advantage of both initial and
ongoing needs assessment is that they are done once the class has started and so
you can do both a direct needs assessment, in which the focus of the activity is
on gathering specific information, or an indirect needs assessment, in which a
"regular" teaching activity is given a needs analysis focus. Or you can do an
informal needs assessment, in which you simply observe-but carefully and
conscientiously-the students.
mEiiJ
Is it feasible for you to gather pre-course information? Using your list
from Investigation 6.8 do a mind map of the types of information you can
envision getting in pre-course, initial and ongoing needs assessment .
WAYS OF DOING NEEDS ASSESSMENT
At the beginning of the chapter I raised the following question about the "how"
of needs assessment: How can teachers do needs assessment in ways that students understand, that are a good use of students' and the teacher's time, and
that give teachers information that allows them to be responsive to students'
needs? John Kongsvik describes his dilemmas with these questions in his experience with initial needs assessment for a course for beginners at the University of
Queretaro in Mexico:
Before teaching at the University of Queretaro, I planned the initial
needs assessment I would use at the beginning of the course. I knew
the length of the course was short, 30 hours, and wanted to get
as much information about each participant as quickly as I could.
I decided to split the assessment into three sections: a written questionnaire, an oral interview, and a class activity.
John Kongsvik
My primary purpose in using the questionnaire was to get some
background information on each of the students. I questioned
whether to write it in English or both English and Spanish. I opted
for the former, concluding that the students could help one another
if needed.
I also asked them to write as much as they could in English about
the following: What did you do today? What are you going to do
this weekend? I explained this process to the entire student body
and then began interviewing students one by one.
I knew that I could not spend a large amount of time speaking to
each student and decided that three minutes would be ample. I used
a grid to record the results of the interview. After all the interviews
were completed, we began the final activity.
AssEssiNG NEEDS "
111
We performed an activity using introductions that had them work
individually as well as in groups. This, I thought, would give me
an idea of both the proficiency level of each student as well as the
group dynamics. The class ended just as we finished, and as the
students walked out the door, I reflected on what had happened.
The questionnaires, I noted, were of little value. Most of the
questions had not been answered and the ones that were, offered
one or two word responses. Even though I saw students explaining
the task to others, the information sought was absent. Should it
have been in Spanish and English? After all, with the exception of
two short answer questions, I was interested in getting background
information on them. Should I have explained it better or gone over
it with them, making that into a lesson in and of itself? What kind
of feelings did I evoke by shoving a questionnaire in each student's
face the second they entered the classroom? Furthermore, my oral
interviews had been constantly interrupted by new arrivals and
questions from confused students.
The second part of the assessment was particularly fruitful.
Within a minute, I was able to get a feel for each individual's level.
Unfortunately, it was difficult to record specifics about each person,
and, after sixteen interviews, I could scarcely remember all that I
wanted. I realized I should have recorded it on video or audio. It
would have served as a better assessment tool and could have been
used to check progress throughout the course. I'm not sure how that
would have affected student performance, but I'm sure I could have
explained its purpose well enough to assuage negative feelings.
IIii
The final part was perhaps the most successful. With an even
greater ease, I could discern who had no or little English and who
had had prior instruction. I also could see how each participant
interacted in small and large group settings. It was also the most
satisfying and comfortable activity we did that day. It made me
think of how I could use this type of assessment tool to get a better
idea of what the students wanted and needed.
II~
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The statement, a teacher is most prepared to teach a class after it
has been taught, is equally valid for needs assessment. Were I to do
it again, I would structure it differently. For one thing, I think I was
trying to get too much information too fast. I was more concerned
with the end product than the process, which affected the benefits
of the assessment.
It would have been better to initially focus on the students' oral
proficiency and their comfort level in group activities. I also felt
the need to have everyone (including myself) introduce themselves.
This would also have given me information on who they are as
people, for example, what they like to do, how they see themselves.
Even without a lot of language, using visual posters could be the
language vehicle. A written assignment could be given in class or
for homework such as, "Write a letter to me in English or Spanish
112 °
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
telling me why you want to learn English." I could devote the
following day to discerning individual learning styles. I could also
use that day to learn what they want to learn. By the third day, we
would be comfortable enough with one another to video (or audio)
tape an activity for long and short term assessment.
mE!] What did John learn about how to get information in ways the students
could understand, that would be a good use of class time, and that would be useful to him in analyzing their needs?
John Kongsvik has captured some of the benefits and pitfalls of initial needs
assessment. First, the information gathered can help to shape the course right
from the start to meet learners' needs. Second, initial needs assessment activities
signal to the learners the teacher's intention to engage them in dialogue and decisions about their learning. However, initial needs assessment activities may not
necessarily give one the information desired. As John Kongsvik's experience
illustrates, the learners may not be sure how to respond to the questions, either
because they don't understand them, don't have the language to respond, haven't
thought about them, or don't want to offend the teacher. For these reasons, it is
important not to give up after the first try. Being responsible for thinking about
one's needs and how to meet them is a skill that may take the learners time to
develop. Figuring out how to do needs assessment effectively is a skill that may
take time for the teacher to develop.
n Investigations 6.8 and 6.10 you explored the what and the when of needs
assessment: the kind of information you would like to get, and when the best
time is to get it. Below we will look at the how: ways to get the information. We
have already seen a range of activities in the examples given above. More ideas
follow. The first five are discrete activities that you could also use on a regular,
ongoing basis. The next five are meant to be used in a regular, ongoing way, in
order to be successful.
Most of the activities are designed to gather more than one type of information. Some of the activities have a direct needs assessment focus, while others
gather the information indirectly. Some are regular teaching activities, which are
given a needs assessment focus because the teacher is using them as an opportunity to gather information by observing students. Some of the activities are
meant to be combined.
In deciding which ones to use, think about what is feasible within your context. Some of them you will have to adapt. For example, if you have a class of
fifty students, you will probably not have the time to interpret fifty questionnaires each with ten questions. It may make more sense to divide the class into
groups of five, with each group reporting a summary of the group's answers.
When designing a needs assessment activity, consider the six questions in
Figure 6.5 below:
I
AssESSING
NEEDs "
113
Figure 6.5:
A Framework for Designing Needs Assessment Activities
1. What information does it gather?
2. Who is involved and why?
3. What skills are necessary to carry it out? Is preparation needed?
In other words, are the students familiar with this type of activity
or do they have to be taught how to do it?
4. Is the activity feasible given the level and number of your students?
How could you adapt it?
5. Is the activity focused only on gathering information which you will analyze or does it also ask students to
1111
identify problems and solutions?
1111
identify priorities?
6. How will the teacher and learners use this information?
[ilfJ
Use the questions above to analyze the needs assessment activities that
follow.
Needs assessment activities that can be used once or on a regular basis.
1. Questionnaires
Questionnaires are an obvious choice for needs assessment, but not always the
most effective, depending on when they are given and how well the learners
understand the kind of information that is sought. The advantage of questionnaires is that you can tailor the questions for your particular group. The disadvantages are that teachers sometimes go overboard with questions, students are
not sure what the "right answer" is, or they don't have the language to answer
them. For example, in an effort to find out what kinds of learning activities students prefer, if "role plays" are on the list, and the students have never heard of
a role play, the teacher will not get the information he seeks. For this reason I
suggest that questionnaires about ways of learning be given after the students
have experienced different ways of working in the class so that their answers are
grounded in experience.
Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig gave the following questionnaire to her students in the
Intensive English Program (IEP) at Cornell University. The questionnaire was
filled out individually by students, handed in to her, and then used as a basis for
an individual interview, described below.
114
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 6.6: Cyndy Thatcher-FeUig's Needs Assessment Questionnaire
I General Questions
1.Name _ __
Cyndy
Thatcher-Fettig
2. Address in Ithaca _ __
3. Phone number in Ithaca _ __
4. Nationality _ __
5. Other foreign language learning experience _ __
6. Have you been to the U.S. before? Why? How long? When? _ __
7. Purpose for taking this course: _ __
8. In what setting will you need English? _ __
9. Length of stay (from now): _ __
10. Future goals: _ __
II English language Study Questions:
1. Have you taken an English conversation course before? If yes, where
and for how long? _ __
2. What specific points of the English language do you want to improve?
a. speaking skills (conversation, discussion, presentations, _ __
b. listening skills (TV, radio, lectures, service people, _ __
c. reading skills (newspaper, magazine, textbooks, books, _ __
d. writing skills (papers, professional/etters, stories, - - - .
e. practical situations (greetings, telephone, restaurant, _ __
f. grammatical skills _ __
g. idiomatic expressions _ __
h. other (please explain) _ __
3. Present TOEFL score: _ _ _ needed TOEFL score: _ __
4. Comments _ __
III!] What do you find useful about Cyndy's questionnaire? Why? What don't
you find useful? Why? How might you adapt it to your context?
AssESSING NEEDS •
115
2. Interviews
Interviews can take different forms: the teacher interviewing the student(s), or
the students interviewing each other, or the students interviewing the teacher.
Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig followed up her questionnaire above, for use in her IEP
speaking/listening class, with a series of interviews or conferences with individual students.
Cyndy
Thatcher-Fettig
Before they leave, I hand the students a learning style survey for
them to do in preparation for our second conference (see Appendix
6-4 on page 251). I also give them some questions to think about
which include: "What kinds of activities do you like to do in class?"
"What are you going to do to help yourself improve your speaking/
listening ability in English outside of class?" "What are your expectations of me and of yourself this semester?" I am interested in
getting to know their learning styles, preferences, and expectations.
Gathering this kind of information from the start makes it easier to
plan a student-centered course and shows the students exactly what
I expect of them.
,,,~~~
~~~
I,
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First Week Conferences
The first week of school I set up student conferences. I like to
individually speak with each student and get a better feel for their
English proficiency level in speaking and listening. The manner
is casual, friendly, and I try to make them feel as comfortable as
possible. I go over the information sheet [above] they handed in to
me on the first day of class and we talk about the information they
wrote in more detail. I like to ask them about their housing situation to make sure that they have a place to stay and that they are
settled. I also get more information on what they were doing before
coming to our program so that I am better able to understand what
kind of acculturation stage they may be going through. I make sure
that they feel they are placed properly in my class as well as other
classes, and I assure them that they should feel free to come to me if
they have any problems. I also explain that we will have this type of
student conference a few times during the semester.
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Round Two Conferences
I set up my second conferences around the beginning of the third
week. We review the "learning style survey" and talk about their
findings about their personal learning style. We also discuss the
questions that I had given them in the first conference. In addition
to getting information about their learning styles and attitudes
about learning English, I use this second conference to try to get
some kind of commitment-possibly in written form-from the
students on the effort they are going to put forth in learning English
inside and outside of class .... I believe in getting students to take
on more responsibility for their own learning. Talking about ways
to do that and getting a written commitment helps them realize how
important it is for them to get out of the traditional "back seat" of
learning. Conferences early on and throughout the semester help
build that awareness.
116
° DESIGNING
LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
lliiJ What appeals to you about the way Cyndy uses conferencing? Why?
What doesn't appeal to you? Why not? How might you adapt this type of
activity to your context?
Another type of questionnaire/interview is one the students ask each other.
"Find someone who" is an activity that teachers typically use as an ice-breaker
or first day activity so that students can get to know each other. See Chris
Conley's version in Appendix 6-2 on page 249.
When students interview each other, the teacher can observe their interaction.
This is an important point about in-class, interactive needs assessment activities:
you can glean information from both the content of the activity and the way the
students do it;
3. Grids, charts, or lists.
One activity I have used is to have students interview each other and then fill in
a class grid or chart with information about their partner's background, interests, profession, and so on. A grid can also be used to get other kinds of information such as students' target needs and learning preferences.
4. Writing activities
Writing activities can serve a variety of purposes for needs assessment. They can
help to assess proficiency or diagnose strengths and weaknesses. They can also
help to gather information about students' objective and subjective needs,
depending on how the activity is focused. One teacher, Wagner Veillard,
changed his initial writing assignment, in an ESL class in an international school
in Sao Paulo, from the usual "What I did during my summer vacation" to one
which gave him information about his students' expectations for the course:
Write a letter to a friend telling him or her that you have just started
a new school year. Be sure to mention:
a) your expectations regarding this year, this semester,
or the first day of classes
b) the classes you will be taking
c) your reasons for taking this course (ESL Writing)
Wagner Veillard
You may include any other information if you wish, but be sure to
address the three points mentioned above.
Exchange letters. As you read, look for similarities and differences.
In groups, come up with a list of reasons for taking this course.
Wagner comments:
In the past, I would have asked my students to write about their
vacation (essay.) A letter is more realistic. The task is more natural.
I can assess writing ability and course expectations as well.
See Denise Lawson's writing activity on page 107 from her needs assessment
plan for another example of how writing can be used.
AssESSING NEEDs "
117
5. Group discussions
Discussions can be used as a way for the group to address some of the areas
related to needs. An advantage of discussions is that they allow students to hear
different points of view and allow the teacher to watch how individual students
participate. A disadvantage is that those who are reluctant to participate may
not have their views heard.
My colleague, Paul LeVassem; used this activity on the first day of class during the years he taught in an Intensive English Program:
Teacher and Student Responsibilities
Teacher and students: individually write out what you think are the responsibilities of the teacher and of the students.
Make a list of responses on sheets of paper or on board, one for teacher
responsibilities, one for students.
Discuss responses and agreements and disagreements.
Sharon Rose-Roth designed the following activity for a group of high beginning level Mexican university students:
I want to know what the attitude of my students is toward North
American culture as well as how much they know about it.
Sharon
Rose-Roth
ltbil
11~::
On the board, I have taped four sheets of paper. At the top, I have
printed various nationalities: French, Japanese, North American,
Mexican. During class, I invite students to use markers to write
whatever short descriptions (can be one word) come to mind when
they think of those specific nationalities.
When everyone seems to have finished writing, I read the descriptions and ask any clarifying questions that might be needed. I then
use this information [as a basis for a discussion] about culture and
stereotypes. I also discuss with the class the concept of how other
nationalities might describe Mexicans.
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6. Ranking activities
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An example of a ranking activity is to ask students to list where and for what
purpose they use English outside of the classroom and to rank them from the
most important to the least important.
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Ongoing needs assessment activities
Ongoing needs assessment activities follow the basic needs assessment cycle:
gather information about where the learners are and where they need to or
would like to be, interpret that information, act on it and evaluate it. Ongoing
needs assessment may take place through careful observation of the students as
they learn; based on that observation, you can make decisions to adjust how to
structure their learning. Such observation and adjustments are the foundation of
good teaching because they require the learners to be engaged in learning in
order for the teacher to have something to observe and assess. The type of ongoing needs assessment activities described below, however, explicitly ask learners
to reflect on and assess their learning on a regular basis throughout the course.
118 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
For such activities to work, they must be focused on the students' learning and
their perceptions of it or on issues they wish to address in the class.
1. Regular feedback sessions
Regular feedback sessions offer the opportunity for learners to reflect on the
class up to that point and to express their views about what has been productive
and what hasn't with respect to their needs as learners. One of the challenges of
this type of assessment is to focus it on the learning so that learners do not perceive it as an evaluation of the teacher's performance. These feedback sessions
are like an oral version of learning logs, which are described in #3 below, except
that they are done with the whole class. Here is how Dylan Bate outlines his
plan for doing such reviews with university students in China:
First, I elicit from the students the activities we have done that
week, going into enough detail so that everyone clearly recalls the
activity and its procedure. I list these on the blackboard in chronological order. Next, I write up two or three questions for students to
rate/assess them with. For example:
Dylan Bate
1. How valuable was this activity in helping you with _ _ ?
(e.g., pronunciation, listening)
2. What did we, or you, do that made it helpful?
3. What would you change next time?
These could change to address certain specific issues/subjects
depending on what the class has done that week or where I want
to draw their attention, or they can be varied depending on how
familiar/comfortable the class is with the feedback process: starting
with concrete, specific questions initially, and moving toward more
open ended questions as students become familiar with and skilled
at giving feedback.
Students' familiarity with giving feedback would be a factor in
whether or not I launch into this with the class as a whole orally or
follow a more roundabout route. For instance, since I expect that
my Chinese students will not be familiar or comfortable with giving
feedback, especially as individuals, I will probably start by having
them discuss these questions in pairs, then small groups, and finally
have them report to the whole class their findings. This way I may
be able to depersonalize it sufficiently to get some good, informative
feedback.
2. Dialogue journals
Students write regularly (e.g., weekly) in a journal which the teacher responds
to. The journal content can be structured or unstructured. (See Peyton and
Reed 1990.)
3. Learning logs or learning diaries
Learning logs are records kept by the students about what they are learning,
where they feel they are making progress, and what they plan to do to continue
making progress.
AssESSING NEEDs •
119
The following is excerpted from Collaborations, a series for adult immigrants
developed by Huizenga and Weinstein-Shr (1994).
Language Learning Diary
A. This week I learned _ __
B. This week I spoke English to _ __
C. This week I read _ _ __
D. My new words are _ _ __
E. Next week I want to learn _ _ __
F. Outside of the classroom, I would like to try _ _ __
When using learning logs or diaries, it is important for students to have a clear
focus for what they are to write about, at least initially. Once they are comfortable using them, students can take the initiative in deciding what to write about.
4. Portfolios
Portfolios are collections of students' work, selected according to certain criteria, to show progress and achievement. One approach to portfolios in a writing
class will be described in Chapter 10. For more information about portfolios,
see Bailey (1998).
5. Participatory processes
See Chris Conley's needs assessment plan and his approach to conceptualizing
content at the end of Chapter 4.
In summary, designing a needs assessment plan for your course requires you
to consider:
1111
1111
1111
120 •
The kind of information you want to get and what you hope
to do with it. See the list in Figure 6.3. Don't try to assess everything. Problematize your situation: what is the most important
information that you can handle and that will help you meet the
challenges of designing or modifying the course?
The types of activities you plan to use, whether they are appropriate for your students, and what kind of information they will
give you. See the Framework in Figure 6.5. Consider activities
that are already part of your repertoire. Remember that the first
time you conduct a needs assessment activity you may not get
the information you had intended to. You can modify or adapt
it the next time.
When you want to conduct the activities. Don't try to do too
many at one time. Don't overwhelm your students with your
need to find out about their needs!
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
E!lm Draw up a needs assessment plan for the course you are designing.
Refer to Denise Lawson's and Chris Conley's plans on pages 107 and 108
for examples.
Suggested Readings
A lot has been written about needs assessment, also called needs analysis, most
of it geared to students who will use English in academic or professional contexts. I like Hutchinson and Waters' introduction to needs assessment in their
book, English for Specific Purposes (1987), Chapter 6, "Needs Analysis," in
which they explain the difference between target needs and learning needs.
Their examples are from ESP courses, and so the points they make about target
needs are mostly relevant to ESL settings, but the points they make about learning needs are relevant to any type of course. J. D. Brown's chapter on needs
analysis in The Elements of Language Curriculum (1995) provides a detailed
overview of its purposes and ways to get information. As with the Hutchinson
and Waters book, the examples are from programs designed for students who
will use English in specific contexts, in this case, academic contexts.
Sarah Benesch's article, "Needs Analysis and Curriculum Development in
EAP: An Example of a Critical Approach" (1996), provides a thoughtful challenge to assumptions that it is our students who must adapt to the target contexts and not the other way around. "Designing Workplace ESOL Courses for
Chinese Healthcare Workers at a Boston Nursing Home" by Johan Uvin (1996)
shows how taking a narrow, context-specific view of students' needs may backfire. I like the teacher- and student-friendly work done by Suzanne Grant and
Catherine Shank in Arlington, Virginia, which my students alerted me to after
attending one of their presentations at TESOL. Their article, "Discovering and
Responding to Learner Needs: Module for ESL Teacher Training," is available
through ERIC (1993). The short summary article, "Needs Assessment for Adult
ESL Learners," by Kathleen Santopietro Wed del and Carol Van Duzer is also
available from ERIC (1997). This summary provides a definition of needs
assessment, examples of assessment activities that can be done as part of teaching, and a good reference list for Adult Education.
AssESSING NEEDS "
121
7
ORGANIZING THE COURSE
In preparation for reading this chapter:
1. Choose a language course you have taught recently or one in which
you were a learner. Write a few descriptive comments about the course
syllabus: what it focused on, how it was organized and sequenced,
and why it was organized that way.
2. For the course you are designing, redesigning, or adapting as you use
this book, make a list of the questions you have about organizing and
sequencing it to use as a guide as you read through the chapter.
or most of my language teaching career, I have worked in contexts that
allowed me to make decisions about what to teach, how to teach it, and in
what order. Consequently, I became adept at adapting and creating materials. I
was quite interested in the Community Language Learning (CLL) approach,
which uses student generated material as its "text"(Curran 1976). For courses
that focused on grammar or speaking skills, I used these student-generated texts
as a basis for developing accuracy and fluency. I supplemented the grammar
course with a grammar workbook. For writing and reading courses, I often used
a core text the first time I taught the course, which I adapted or supplemented.
The second and following times, I tended to develop my own materials and use
the text as a supplement, for homework. When I taught courses for business personnel in Japan, I used a BBC video program, for which I developed activities
and worksheets, but I also used student generated presentations and conversations about their work lives as a basis for those courses.
I generally did not have a conception of each course as a whole. I did not
know how to formulate goals and objectives but rather saw a course as a series
of lessons, each one showing me what the students needed to work on, limited
by what I could perceive. For example, in a grammar course, I would design
activities to address the grammar points that arose from errors students made in
the conversations they generated. I would then devise tests that assessed what we
had covered. This approach worked in the grammar courses, but did not work
as well in reading courses, for example, since I did not have a clear idea of what
one needed to learn in order to become a fluent second language reader.
My formative experience in organizing and sequencing came when I embarked
on co-authoring the adult basal series, East West (1988) with my colleague, David
Rein. As originally conceived, East West was to have three levels, with the first
level aimed at false beginners, the second at low intermediates, and the third at
F
See Stevick
(1998) for more
about CLL.
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
123
See Chapter 9
for the way one
teacher adapted
Unit 1 of fast
West Basics.
124 "
high intermediates. I subsequently wrote a fourth, beginners' level with Alison
Rice, East West Basics (1994). The publisher had specified that they wanted the
series to have a grammatical core around which functions and topics would be
woven. Each level was to include work on the four skills of reading, writing,
speaking, and listening, but give prominence to listening and speaking. There was
to be an episode of a suspenseful story at the end of each unit. Most of the writing would be assigned in the workbook. David and I felt that a cultural component and a pronunciation component were also important, so we added them to
the list of specifications.
When we began work on the syllabus for East West, we wrote up inventories
of grammar, functions, and topics on 3 by 5 cards. The inventories came from
our own experience as teachers, David's in Mexico, Liberia, and the United
States, mine in Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. We were greatly helped by
Threshold Level English, (VanEk and Alexander 1986), one of several syllabus
documents published by the Council of Europe as part of its efforts to develop a
Europe-wide approach to teaching foreign languages to adults. It contains
exhaustive lists of settings, functions, general and specific notions, topics, and
forms. We also looked at the table of contents of all the current textbooks we
could find. The process of narrowing down and then deciding the order of what
was on our 3 by 5 cards was time-consuming, circuitous, and opaque. We often
felt as if we were taking two steps forward and one step back. One piece would
fit well, but then knock out another piece. It was like a giant puzzle with no picture on the box.
We sequenced the grammar based on conventional wisdom as drawn from
then current textbooks, such as teaching "be" and personal information first,
for example. We also sequenced it based on what we felt students needed soonest. For example, we introduced the past tense before the present continuous
tense because in our experience, students needed to be able to relate past events
as soon as possible. We considered how each unit might lead into the next one
by providing vocabulary or grammar that could be recycled in the following
unit. We also considered the grammar in terms of the topics and functions that
would give it textual flesh. We wanted to include a culture component, using
information about North American culture as a basis for analyzing and describing the students' own culture(s). It was not easy to decide which grammar points
to cluster together, nor which topics were best suited to the grammar. Some of
the overall sequencing made sense, some of it was, of necessity, arbitrary. We
found that we could not gear the suspense story to the grammatical, topical, and
functional content of each unit, and so treated it separately. (In fact, we only
included a story in the false beginners' level.) Deciding how to structure each
unit was a whole other matter.
I learned three lessons from my teaching and writing experiences, each one a
theme running through this book. The first is that you have to make choices,
because you can't do everything. The second is that there isn't one, right way to
organize a course, although there are principles that can help provide order to
the seeming chaos of possibilities. The third is that what you choose and how
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
you organize it must make sense to you so that you have a basis for your decisions. In this chapter we will explore what it means to organize and sequence a
course, how to decide on an appropriate organization and sequencing, and different ways to organize the course.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ORGANIZE A COURSE?
Organizing a course is deciding what the underlying systems will be that pull
together the content and material in accordance with the goals and objectives
and that give the course a shape and structure. Organizing a course occurs on
different levels: the level of the course as a whole; the level of subsets of the
whole: units, modules, or strands within the course; and then individual lessons.
In this chapter we will focus on the first two levels: how to organize the course
as a whole, and how to organize subsets of the whole. In Chapter 8 on adapting
and developing materials we will again look at the second level, how to organize
subsets of the whole, and at the third level, how to organize lessons. The product of organizing and sequencing a course is a syllabus. The syllabus may take a
variety of forms, depending on how you plan to use it. Most syllabuses that are
given to students contain a chronological list or chart of what the course will
cover. If it is a document that only you will use, then it could also take the form
of a map or a diagram. We will look at four different syllabuses and one syllabus
unit in this chapter.
Organizing a course involves five overlapping processes: 1) determining the
organizing principle(s) that drive(s) the course; 2) identifying units, modules, or
strands based on the organizing principle(s); 3) sequencing the units; 4) determining the language and skills content of the units; 5) organizing the content
within each unit. We will look at each of these aspects in this chapter. The
processes do not follow a specific order; you may work on the content and organization of a unit or strand before deciding how to sequence the units over the
course as a whole; you may also decide the sequence of the modules or units
once the course is underway. The five processes or aspects are captured in a flow
chart below:
Figure 7.1:
Five Aspects of Organizing a Course
Detennining the
organizing principle(s}
(e.g., themes, genres, tasks)
Identifying the course units based
on the organizing principle(s}
ORGANIZING THE COURSE
8
125
The terms "unit" and "module" give a sense of complete wholes within the larger course. The term "strand" applies to courses that are not organized around
units, but around strands that are carried through the whole course. For example, Barbara Fujiwara (1996) describes a listening course she taught that was
organized around three strands: a video series, specific work with learning
strategies, and student projects. Approximately a third of each class was devoted to each strand. Within each strand, there were units of work.
WHY ORGANIZE A COURSE?
See Chapter 4,
page 47,
reprocess
syllabuses.
126 •
For some teachers the question Why organize the course? will seem inappropriate, even ludicrous. Of course you have to have some idea of the organization
and sequencing of your course, or how will you know how the course fits together and is sequenced in such a way that students will learn? But for teachers who
are considering some form of process syllabus in which they negotiate some or all
of the syllabus with their students, this question is important to ask. This is the
dilemma Chris Conley described in Chapter 4 as he explored ways to have his
students participate in determining the content of the course. (See pages 66-69.)
Having a negotiated syllabus does not mean that you walk into the course
with no plan in mind. Here I agree with Stern when he says, "But an emphasis
on learner autonomy does not absolve the curriculum designer of his responsibility to plan the options within which the learner will be encouraged to exercise
his judgement. In short, careful and comprehensive curriculum planning is compatible with adaptability at the class level for both teachers and students.
Therefore, the laudable intention to give freedom to the teacher and responsibility to the student must not serve as an excuse for not planning the curriculum."
(1992, p. 45-46). I would like to make a case here for having some kind of organization in mind, because it is a way to bridge the goals and objectives with the
actual lessons; because most students expect it; and because it provides the
arena or "options" within which to make decisions together. I am not against
negotiating a syllabus with students: on the contrary, I hope it is clear by now
that I feel that for a course to be successful, there must be ongoing interaction
with students. Howeve1; I believe that a negotiated syllabus works best when
there is a conceptual "container" to support it.
When I first started teaching linguistics, I decided that I wanted to negotiate
the syllabus with my graduate students. I gave them a list of possible content
and told them that I would teach what they wanted and in the order they wanted it. The response was mild shock. I think initially there was some concern that
I didn't know what I was doing, and that I was foisting some of my responsibility on them. Some of them were not familiar with all the items on the list and
didn't know how to respond. Some of them were anxious to get to work and
didn't want to spend time deciding what they were going to learn. They felt it
was my responsibility. I ended up deciding what we would do the first several
sessions. Once they had gotten to know me, each other, and the territory of the
subject matter, they were able to make decisions about what to study. When you
negotiate aspects of the syllabus with your students, make sure that they have
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
the tools with which to negotiate. By the same token, if you have a syllabus prepared in advance, this does not mean that you cannot change it. We sometimes
give too much power to written documents.
How
DOES ONE DECIDE ON AN APPROPRIATE ORGANIZATION?
The way you organize your course depends on a number of factors which
include the course content, your goals and objectives, your past experience,
your students' needs, your beliefs and understandings, the method or text, and
the context.
The way you have conceptualized the content and defined the goals and
objectives of the course provides the foundation for organizing the course. For
example, courses that focus on writing skills are often organized around types of
composition (e.g., narrative, argument). A course in which the four skills of
reading, writing, speaking, and listening are integrated may be organized
around themes; a content-based history course may be organized chronologically around historical periods or around historical themes. A task-based course
may be organized around a series of cumulative tasks. See Chapter 4,
Conceptualizing Content, for other examples of the content around which a syllabus can be organized.
The way that you conceptualize content and set goals and objectives depends
on your teaching (and learning) experience in general, and of this kind of course
in particular; what you understand about how people learn languages; and the
students' needs, or what you know about their needs. For example, if your students are children, you may choose to organize your course around themes
rather than linguistic skills. If your students are business personnel, you may
choose to organize your course around the types of tasks they perform. Your
experience allows you to build on what you have found effective in the past.
Your beliefs about how learners learn also play an important role. For example, beliefs about the importance of learner autonomy may lead you to organize
your course around learner projects. Beliefs about the role of learner's experience may lead you to organize your course around learners' stories (Wrigley and
Guth 1992).
If you adopt a particular approach or method, you may organize the course
around certain material or procedures. For example, the Community Language
Learning Approach uses student generated material as the core "text" for the
course (Rardin and Tranel1988). An existing syllabus or textbook may provide
the organizational structure for a course. It may be possible to reshape the syllabus, depending on the institutional givens.
The teaching context also plays a crucial role. If your course is part of an institutional curriculum, the course organization may, to some extent, be predetermined. Your decisions about organization may occur more at the unit and lesson
level than at the course level. Time is also an important contextual factor. For
example, the amount of time for the course, how often the course meets, and over
what period will help to determine the number and length of your teaching units
or modules, or how many strands you can follow. If there is an examination
schedule, you will need to organize the course to meet the exam requirements.
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
I"
127
WHAT ARE DIFFERENT WAYS TO ORGANIZE AND
SEQUENCE A COURSE?
Organizing the course
As I pointed out earlier in the chapter, there is no one way or "best way" to
organize a course. You may organize a course one way the first time you teach it
and reorganize it because of what you learned about what worked and what
didn't the next time you teach it. I personally like to experiment with the way I
organize and sequence my courses. For example, the pedagogical grammar
course I teach includes three modules: phonology, lexicon, and an introduction
to transformational grammar. I have taught it in that order, which is typical:
moving from units of sound, to units of meaning, to the sentence level. However,
I have also taught it beginning with lexicon, then phonology, then grammar,
because the work with lexicon provides the language items on which to base the
phonology work. And, earlier in my career, I taught phonology last, because I
was intimidated by the subject myself and wanted the students to know and
trust me so that I wouldn't be nervous when teaching it to them!
I have found that in the long run, changes I make to the order or systems
don't make a huge difference in the experiences of the students, as long as I have
thought out my reasons for making the changes. Part of this is due to the nonlinear and organic way in which we learn (Larsen-Freeman 1997). Part is due to
the flexibility of the human spirit. Part is due to the fact that the students don't
know that I did it a different way before. This doesn't mean that the changes
always world It also doesn't mean that there aren't principles for organizing a
course, or that I didn't have reasons for making the changes I did.
Example syllabuses
Below we will look at two syllabuses for two very different contexts, a high
school Spanish course and an ESP course for scientists.
fB Study the following two syllabuses and answer the questions:
1. On what basis did each teacher organize her course:
What was the organizing principle or focus for each unit?
On what basis are units sequenced?
2. What do you like about the way the teacher organized her course?
Why? What don't you like? Why not?
3. Why are they so different?
The first syllabus is for Denise Maksail-Fine's high school Spanish 3 course.
The course is a year long (36 weeks), so only the first twelve weeks are included
in Figure 7.2. (The complete syllabus is in Appendix 7-1 on pages 252-255.)
128 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 7.2:
The First Twelve Weeks of Denise Maksaii-Fine's Year-long (36 week)
Syllabus for her Spanish 3 Course
Spanish 3
Week 1: Persona/Identification
Week 2: Persona/Identification
(Sept) Biographical Data
(Sept) Physical Characteristics
Introductions, Greetings,
Psychological Characteristics
Leave-taking, Common Courtesy
Review: Present tense verbs
Review: Present tense verbs
Week 3: Family Life
Week 4: Family Life
(Sept) Family Members
(Sept) Roles and Responsibilities
Family Activities
Cultural Awareness:
Cultural Awareness:
Hispanic vs. USA Families
ora de lndependencia (Mexico)
Review: Noun-adjective agreement,
Review: Noun-adjective agreement,
articles
articles
Week 5: House and Home
Week 6: House and Home
(Oct)
(Oct)
Types of Lodging
Review: Prepositions
Week 7: House and Home
Routine Household Chores
Rooms, Furnishings, Appliances
Review: Prepositions
Week 8: Services and Repairs
Repairs and Household Goods
Cultural Awareness:
ora de Ia Raza
Review: Imperative
Week 9: Community and Neighborhood
Week 10: Private and Public Services
Local Stores, Facilities
Recreational Opportunities
Cultural Awareness:
ora de los Muertos
Communications:
Telephone, Mail, E-Mail
Review: Imperative
Review: Imperative
Week 11: Private and Public Services
(Nov)
Review: Imperative
Government Agencies:
Post Office, Customs,
Police, Embassies
Week 12: Private and Public Services
Finances: Banks,
Currency Exchange
Review: Imperative
The second syllabus was developed by Brooke Palmer for an ESP course
for scientists. The course is 12 weeks long and meets twice a week for a total
of 48 hours.
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
129
Figure 7.3:
Brooke Palmer's Syllabus for an ESP Course for Professionals
in the Sciences
Week 1: Introduction to ESP; Presentation Skills Workshop
Week 2: Amplified definitions
Week 3: Description of a mechanism
Week 4: Description of a process
Week 5: Classification
Week 6: Abstract writing
Week 7: Research reports
Week 8: Research reports
Week 9: Peer editing of research reports
Week 10: "Mini conference"- Presentations of research reports
"ll't::,j:
ill'
:t:
Week 11: "Mini conference"- Presentations and peer evaluations
I
illir!l
Week 12: Self evaluations and video evaluations of presentations
1!111!
II 1~11
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See Chapter 4,
pages 59-61,
for her mind
maps and
rationale, and
Appendix 5-2,
page 242,
for Denise
Maksaii-Fine's
goals and
objectives.
See Chapter 8,
pages 165-166,
for a complete
unit.
See pages
139-140.
130 •
How are the courses above organized? Denise Maksail Fine's Spanish course
is organized around topics. Thus topics are the organizing principle of the
course. Each topic is the focus of a unit that lasts two to three weeks. Within
each unit, students learn about aspects of the topic. For example, in the second
unit, Family Life, which is two weeks long, students learn to talk and write
about family members, family activities, and family roles and responsibilities. As
we know from her reflections in Chapter 4, Denise had to struggle not to have
grammar be the organizing principle for her course. In this syllabus, grammar
takes a supporting role, and is introduced in relation to the topic. Another element is culture, which is also linked to the particular topic. In the unit on Family
Life, students explore similarities and differences between families in the United
States and families in Mexico and Spanish-speaking countries in South America.
Other elements will be included in each unit, such as work on the four skills of
reading, writing, speaking, and listening, which we know from Denise's goals
and objectives; however, these are not specified in the syllabus. They will be
specified at the materials development level, which we will see in Chapter 8.
In Brooke Palmer's course, the organizing principle is not topics, but texts,
specifically scientific texts, which she calls "technical writing products." These
include amplified definitions, describing a mechanism, describing a process, and
so on. The main focus is on being able to write each of those kinds of text. The
course culminates in a "mini conference" in which the students present their
final paper, a research report, to each other. The six types of text are the basis
for the course units which span twelve weeks. The first week and the last three
weeks address presentation skills. Speaking, reading, and listening are also
included as part of the units, although that is not apparent from the syllabus list
above. We will hear from Brooke about why she organized her course that way
later in the chapter.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
These two syllabuses provide us with examples of three of the processes of
organizing a course outlined in Figure 7.1: determining the organizing principle,
which in turn provides the basis for the syllabus units or modules, which in turn
are sequenced in a certain way. The topics in the Spanish course are sequenced
so that they follow a progression from the individual to the home to the community and beyond. The ESP course follows a progression from simpler writing
texts/tasks to more complex writing texts/tasks, each building on the preceding
one. The fourth and fifth aspects of organizing a course, unit content and organization, are not evident, or only partially evident, in their syllabus documents.
We will look at two more syllabuses below which provide information about
all five aspects of organizing a course, including the content and organization of
individual units.
mJI
Study the following two syllabuses.
1. On what basis did each teacher organize her course:
IIIII
What was the organizing principle or focus for each unit?
Ill
Within a unit, what are the language learning components?
For example, vocabulary, grammar, four skills, communicative
skills, cultural skills, etc.
Ill
Within a unit, how are the language learning components
organized?
2. What do you like about the way the teacher organized her course?
Why? What don't you like? Why not?
3. What are the similarities and differences between them?
The first syllabus is Toby Brody's, for an eight-week course for high-intermediate to advanced level pre-university students from different cultures. The course
takes place in an intensive English program in the United States, and meets for 2
hours daily. It uses the local newspaper as the core text for the course.
Toby has called it an integrated skills course because it integrates work on the
four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. She chose the newspaper
as the text for her course for several reasons. Newspapers are a genre that students are familiar with, since newspapers exist in every culture. Newspapers
report current events and reactions to the events as they occur and so are a
means to connect students to the larger world. The newspaper also reports on
sports, the arts, business, and local news and the community. Newspapers are
cultural products and so provide insights into the target culture. She writes:
The adaptability of the newspaper to academics gives this material
grounding as a versatile resource. When I began to consider the
skills pre-university students would need to hone, tasks emerged
which reflected the richness and variety contained in the newspaper.
University-level courses, generally, challenge students' abilities in
expository writing, summarizing, arguing a point, and researching
Toby Brody
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
131
See Chapter 4,
page 62, for
Toby Brody's
mind map for the
content of her
course.
provocative questions, for example. The newspaper is a huge stock
of information placed into a user-friendly, accessible format and, as
such is a practical resource for students to tap. I believe that every
student can find something of interest to explore, given the multidimensional nature of the paper.
The first four weeks of the syllabus are shown below. The complete syllabus
is in Appendix 7-2 on pages 256-257.
Figure 7.4:
The First Four Weeks of Toby Brody's Syllabus for an Eight-week
Integrated Skills Course Based On the Newspaper
Week3
Week1
Introduction: Newspaper scavenger hunt
Focus: Objective reporting
Focus: Summarizing
Tasks: Scanning for 5 W's and
H Questions
Predicting main ideas from
headlines
Reading for main ideas
Answering comprehension
questions
Tasks: Reconstructing a strip story
Following and reconstructing a
developing story
Reading first part of an article
that "jumps" and creating
an ending
Sequencing a radio news report
Listening for main ideas
-Short News Report
Oral and written summaries
Linguistic Focus: Forming questions
Linguistic Focus: Transitions
and adverbial connectors
Culture Focus: Asking colloquial
questions (e.g., What's up?)
Culture Focus: Formats of newspapers
and radio broadcasts
Week2
Week4
Focus: Interviewing
Focus: Proposing Solutions
Tasks: Predicting main ideas
from headlines
Skimming and scanning
Reading and role-playing an
interview article
Interviewing students with
"interview cards"
Writing feature story based
on interview
Interviewing a native speaker
Reporting orally on interview
with a native speaker
Tasks: Reading about and summarizing
community problems
Researching community problems
Reporting on community problems
and describing action to be taken
Creating a visual to capture
a problem and its solution
Presenting a synopsis of
the visual
Linguistic Focus: Review questions
Student-generated structures
Linguistic Focus: Conditionals
Culture Focus: Interview a native
Culture Focus: Connecting
speaker re a culture question
community problems to local
realities
132
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The second syllabus was designed by Valarie Barnes for a four week holiday (or
vacation) course for young adults. It takes place in the United States, although it
was designed based on her experience with such courses in both Singapore and the
United States. The students have classes in the morning and afternoon. Valarie
knew from experience that these young people were not interested in devoting
their holiday to the study of grammar or academic skills, so she designed the
course so that students would need to actively use the language they had learned
more formally at school. She also designed it to take advantage of their curiosity
about the environment and to introduce them to an exploration of their own cultures in light of the target culture. The syllabus in Figure 7.5 shows the first three
weeks. The complete syllabus is in Appendix 7-3 on pages 258-259.
Toby Brody has organized her course around what she calls "pre-university
skills" or skills that the students will need to master in order to do well in university. Each skill is the focus of the unit and is labeled as such. The skills for the
first four units are summarizing, interviewing, objective reporting and proposing solutions. Each unit is a week long. The supporting components she has
labeled tasks, linguistic focus and culture focus. Within a unit, each sequence of
tasks develops the language and skills needed to be able to master the focus skill.
For example, the focus skill of week 2 is to be able to conduct an interview.
Students learn to read an article based on an interview and then role-play the
interview. They then interview fellow students using questions provided on
interview cards and write a newspaper story based on the interview. Finally, they
interview a native speaker about a cultural question and report to the class what
they learned in the interview. The grammar focuses on reviewing questions that
are used in interviews as well as grammar points the students choose. The cultural aspect is the basis for the interview of a native speaker. The eight week
course culminates in the final week, when the students produce their own newspaper. As the course progresses, the tasks associated with the focus skill place
more complex demands on the students' language and thinking abilities.
The organizing principle for Valarie Barnes' course is quite different from
Toby's. Her course is organized around theme-related field trips. Each module is
a week long and follows something of a predictable sequence or cycle of activities: prepare for the field trip, take the field trip, learn from the field trip. The
preparation for the field trip weaves together work on the vocabulary and the
communicative and cultural skills the students will need. During the field trip
they each have language- and culture-based tasks to perform. For example, during the field trip to the shopping mall, their tasks include going into certain
stores to find out whether they carry certain merchandise or give student discounts as well as interviewing shoppers about their views on the difference
between shopping at the mall and shopping in downtown stores. After the field
trip they reflect on their experiences, and consolidate their linguistic and cultural learning in a variety of formats, some regular such as journals and scrapbooks, some particular to the unit such as skits or collages. Each week, the field
trip demands more linguistically of the students.
ORGANIZING THE COURSE '"
133
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111 Program overview
• Attitudes and opinions
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111 Concentration game
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111 The interview
• Downtown walkabout
1111
Thursday
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Friday
""·--~·-···-··--
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• Writing in journals
111 Walkabout follow-up
111 Song: "Big Yellow Taxi"
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---·····-
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1111 Discussion
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111 Homework
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• Adjectives for foods
1111 Identify the foods
1111 Categories worksheet
111 "Do you like ___ "
111 ABC game
1111 Self-interview
Week Three
Game
Brainstorming
11 Reading
• Discussion
• Interview preparation
1111 Homework
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111 Interview an American
• Discussion
• Menus
• Restaurant role play
1111 Register
1111 Vocabulary
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Listening
1111 Small group work
111 Practice
1111 Error correction
111 Shops role play
• Follow-up
1111 American weights and
measures
1111 Language lab
1111
111
1111
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Half-day field trip
to a supermarket,
a food cooperative,
and a restaurant
Discussion
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• Field trip to the zoo
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Language lab
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h~ four syllabu~e~ you l:av.e investi~ated tl:t~s far in the chapter each have a
T d1fferent orgamzmg pnne1ple: toptcs, wrtttng texts/tasks, academic skills,
and theme-based field trips. Organizing principles provide the basis for identifying units. In a course that is organized around topics, a different topic will be the
subject of each unit. In a course organized around types of writing, a different
type of writing is the basis of each unit. In a course organized around tasks or
projects, a different project is the basis for each unit. A course may also be organized around two complementary organizing principles. For example, a writing
course may choose a different type of writing and different topic for the writing
for each unit. The content of a unit brings together the language and skills that
will enable students to achieve the focus of the unit. For this reason, organizing
principles must be capable of bringing together a variety of language and skills
elements to support it in achieving the objectives. I discourage teachers from
using grammar and functions as the organizing principle for their course
because they are better viewed as supporting elements in achieving communicative and analytical skills than as an end in themselves. They do not readily allow
for weaving together other elements in each unit but are better viewed as one of
the threads in the fabric. Even if you have been asked to design a grammar
course, I think it is still more productive to use topics or skills as the organizing
principle. The investigation below asks you to consider possible organizing principles for your course.
I I ] Consult the mind maps or charts you developed in Investigation 4.8 to
conceptualize the content. Discuss the following questions with a colleague:
I
1. Is there an organizing principle, one which brings together the other
elements of content? (Some possible organizing principles are: topics,
themes, types of writing, academic skills, genre, tasks, stories.)
2. What are some possible units in your course, derived from the organizing principle? (For example, in Brooke Palmer's syllabus, the organizing
principle was types of scientific writing and the units were classification,
description of a mechanism etc. In Denise Maksail-Fine's course, the
organizing principle was topics and some of the units were family life,
house and home, community, and neighborhood.)
In Investigation 7.4 you explored the first two aspects of organizing a course:
determining the organizing principle and identifying units based on the organizing principle. In the next section, you will explore in more detail the third
aspect, sequencing the units.
Sequencing
Sequencing involves deciding the order in which you will teach what. At the
course level, sequencing involves deciding the order in which you will teach the
units and, to some extent, the order within each unit. You may choose to determine the sequence of units and within units after the course has begun, depending on how much flexibility your context permits.
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
135
One of the main principles of sequencing in putting a course together is based
on the common sense principle of building. In other words, step A prepares in
some way (provides the foundation) for step B. Step B in turn prepares for Step
C and so on. Some ways to understand the idea that A prepares for B are:
A is simpler or less demanding; B is more complex or
more demanding.
For example, in Brooke Palmer's course, describing a mechanism is
simpler than describing a process. In a grammar sequence, the present perfect tense is typically learned after the past tense because it
is considered more complex linguistically (auxiliary + past participle) and conceptually (it is about the past as related to the present).
A is more controlled; B is more open-ended.
For example, in Toby Brody's newspaper course, learning to summarize an existing newspaper article is more controlled, while learning how to write an article is more open-ended.
A provides knowledge or skills required to do or understand B
(orB builds on knowledge and skills provided by A).
The two examples above from Brooke's and Toby's course could
also be used to illustrate this point. In Valarie Barnes' holiday
course, learning the vocabulary for and then role-playing ordering
in a restaurant provided knowledge and skills required for ordering
in an actual restaurant.
l'
1.
r,.
Another basis for sequencing is the one Denise Maksail-Fine chose for her
course: from the individual to the home to the community to the larger world.
History and literature courses can follow a chronological sequence. Deciding
over the span of the course how units should be sequenced is not an exact science, however, because different teachers will have different views of the relationship between A, B, and C. One teacher may reverse the process of a typical
writing course in which students learn how to write paragraphs and then learn
to write essays. Instead, students may be given the task of writing an essay first
in order to diagnose their strengths and weaknesses. Subsequent lessons may
break down the component skills in order to address the weaknesses. Students
may first approach texts holistically before working with parts of them. Some
teachers choose not to sequence their courses in advance, but work from a
"menu" of units or strands and choose from them as the course progresses.
Ultimately, you need to be able to justify your reasons for how you decide to
sequence the course content. The following investigation is designed to help you
look at different sequencing possibilities and justifications for them.
!
'I
tl,
ID
The lists below are drawn from the table of contents of three different
English language textbooks. The first is a list of topics. The second is a list of
grammar points. The third is a list of writing tasks. Do the following with each
one separately:
136
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
1. Work with a partner and decide the order in which you would teach the
items on the list in a way that makes sense to both of you.
2. Compare your order with another pair and discuss the reasons for
any differences.
Topics:
Grammar points:
people: education and childhood
simple present tense
---··--
---~-~---------------
cities: locations and directions
present continuous tense
food
subject pronouns
requests and complaints
yesjno questions
housing
questions with which, how much
travel and vacation
present tense of be
machines and appliances
frequency adverbs
holidays and customs
questions with what
changes and contrasts:
There isjare
life in past, present, future
For a similar
activity using
an actual textbook unit see
Investigation 9.6,
page 196.
future with be going to
movies, books and entertainment
count and non count nouns
buildings and landmarks
prepositions of location
money
past tense of be
people's abilities; jobs
information about someone's past
Writing tasks:
-- ------------------- --
defining: writing about sleep problems
comparing and contrasting: writing about a car purchase
writing a memo: personal writing habits
persuasive writing: writing about subcultures within societies
classifying: writing about migrating to your community
collecting and reporting data: consumer habits
description and narrative: writing about personal success
----~-------
--~
----------
Decisions about sequencing at the course level and at the unit level are similar. For Valarie Barnes, this is manifest on a weekly basis in the way the week is
structured, with activities leading up to the field trip, and then the field trip itself
as a prerequisite for the follow-up activities, and over the course as a whole,
with the types of field trips each week. For Toby Brody, this is manifest in the
weekly organization, where each task builds on the one before in order to culminate in the skill focus of the week, and in the course as a whole, where each
focus is increasingly more complex and uses the skills learned or deepened the
previous week. Toby describes her process this way:
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
137
Once I had decided which pre-university skills students might need
to develop or sharpen, [the "focuses"], I ordered these "Focus"
items from simple to complex over the term of the course. The next
step was to decide what specific tasks should be addressed in each
"Focus," which tasks could be built on preceding ones, and which
could be revisited in subsequent weeks. The spiraling of tasks such
as summarizing, sequencing, reading for main ideas, formulating
questions, etc. are woven throughout the eight week period.
Toby Brody
The intensity of the course peaks at the end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh weeks, with students engaged in analyzing,
inferencing, and problem solving. The lessons planned for the end
of the seventh week are of a lighter variety and are intended to ease
students into the creative fun of the final week, the students' own
journalistic product.
T
oby refers to spiraling, another principle of sequencing, also called recycling. This means that something learned is reintroduced in connection with
something else, so that it is both "reused" and learned in more depth. The something may be knowledge (of vocabulary, for example) or a language-related skill
(such as how to write a letter or how to make a phone call) or a classroom skill
(such as how to work effectively in groups or how to give directions). In a reading skills course, different texts may be devoted to a similar topic, but with a
more complex treatment each time. Ways to spiral and recycle include recycling
something using a different skill (from reading to speaking, for example), recycling something in a different context (from a context provided in a text to one's
own personal context, for example), recycling something using a different learning technique (categorizing a list of classroom behaviors as positive or negative,
then using the vocabulary in a parent-teacher conference role play.) For example, in Valarie's course, the students categorize the food in menus on Tuesday of
week two, followed by the chance to use the menu in a role play, followed by
doing the role play using a different register, according to the context. Then on
Thursday, they go to a restaurant and order from a menu. In Toby's course, the
students predict main ideas from headlines in the first week (using reading and
speaking skills), transform headlines into complete sentences in the fifth week
(using grammar skills), and create their own headlines in the eighth week (using
writing skills).
fll
Look at the complete course syllabuses for Denise Maksail-Fine's Spanish 3
course and for Toby Brody's Integrated Skills course in Appendix 7-1 on page
252 and 7-2 on page 25 6. What are some ways that each syllabus spirals or
recycles previous material?
The following investigation asks you to identify a possible sequence for the
units of your course.
138 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Look over the list of possible units you drew up in Investigation 7.4.
1. Consider the time frame of your course: how long it is (a month, a
semester, a year); how often and for how long it meets; other scheduling
factors such as an examination schedule or holidays. How many units
could you realistically teach in that schedule?
2. What are some ways you could sequence the units? What is your basis
for sequencing them in that way?
Unit content and organization
The fourth and fifth aspects of organizing a course are determining unit content
(particular tasks, skills, functions, grammar, etc.) in accordance with the objectives for the unit, and determining how to organize the content within a unit.
Let's look at Brooke Palmer's course syllabus again and see how she explains her
approach to sequencing the course units and to organizing the content within
each unit:
An ESP Course for Professionals in the Sciences
Week 1: Introduction to ESP; Presentation Skills Workshop
Week 2: Amplified definitions
Brooke Palmer
Week 3: Description of a mechanism
Week 4: Description of a process
Week 5: Classification
Week 6: Abstract writing
Week 7: Research reports
Week 8: Research reports
Week 9: Peer editing of research reports
Week 10: "Mini conference"- Presentations of research reports
Week 11: "Mini conference"- Presentations and peer evaluations
Week 12: Self evaluations and video evaluations of presentations
The course units build from the simple to the more complex.
Though the content is based on technical writing products, they
actually will serve as vehicles for developing other skills. Units run
from two to six class periods depending on the level of sophistication of the writing product. Each product produced by the students
is aimed to build upon the previous topic in general so that when
the final research paper is clue, students will not have to frantically
begin from scratch. I based the units on technical writing elements
found in Science, Medicine, and Technology: English Grammar
and Technical Writing by Peter Anthony Master (1986).
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
139
Sequences within each unit are based on the materials design model
from English for Specific Purposes: A Learning Centred Approach
by Hutchinson and Waters (1986, pp. 108-109), which includes the
following points:
111
111
IIIII
1111
input
content focus
language focus
writing task
Each sequence deals with the writing products from a what? how?
and now what? approach, but I have chosen to take the process
one step further and include public speaking and presentation tasks.
Each time the students finish writing and peer-editing a product,
they will then present it to the class for the development of their
speaking and listening skills (and peer feedback). Presenting and
speaking skills will be initially presented in the first week during
an intensive workshop and thereafter addressed briefly before
presentation time.
Unit content
See Chapter 5,
page 91.
For her
complete goals
and objectives
see Appendix 7-4
on page 260.
140 •
If the organizing principle is topic or theme-based, the content of a unit will
depend on the way you have conceptualized the course content and the goals
and objectives for the course. For example, each unit in Denise Maksail-Fine's
Spanish 3 course brings together vocabulary, grammar, culture, functions, and
reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, using the topic as the unifying
focus. These elements-grammar, culture, functions, etc.-are the way Denise
has conceptualized the content of her course, and they also appear in her goals
and objectives. For example, one of her goals is for her students to develop
speaking and listening skills and the objectives include being able to use grammar, vocabulary and functions appropriate to the topic. Denise's choices about
what to put in her unit are governed by the way she conceptualized content and
formulated goals and objectives.
If the organizing principle of a course is a process or skill, rather than a topic
or theme, then the unit content will be somewhat predictable because it will
include the language, skills, and strategies needed to carry out the process or
master the skill. For example, the organizing principle of Brooke Palmer's course
is scientific texts, which students need to be able to understand and produce.
The unit content will include the particular vocabulary, analytical skills, and
writing skills students need to be able to produce the type of text that is the
focus of the unit, such as the description of a mechanism.
However, Brooke's course does not only focus on writing skills. She formulated three goals for her course (which I have abbreviated here): for students to
develop scientific and technical writing skills and strategies, to develop reading
skills and strategies, and to develop speaking and listening skills and strategies.
While the organizing principle was scientific texts such as amplified definitions
and descriptions of a mechanism, she wanted her students not only to develop
writing skills so that they could produce the texts, but also to develop reading
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
skills, using the text types as the basis for input, and presentation skills, using
the information in their writing as a basis. Had she conceptualized content in a
different way, for example as genre rather than skills, she would approach the
texts differently and have somewhat different course goals.
Regardless of what the organizing principle is, the unit content is derived
from the way you have conceptualized content and articulated goals and objectives, which in turn are based on what you know about your context and your
students' needs. Because course design is a multi-faceted process, you may find
that you will want to modify or refine your goals and objectives because of discoveries you make as you organize the course and draw up a syllabus.
See Chapter 4,
page 48,
re genre.
Unit organization
There are three complementary ways to organize the modules, units, or strands
in a course: a cycle, a matrix, or a combination of the two. A cycle means that
some elements occur in a predictable sequence and, once the sequence is completed, it starts all over again. For example, Brooke Palmer describes her unit
organization as based on a cycle which begins with language input, followed by
focus on content and focus on language, and ends with a writing task. To this
cycle she has added a listening and speaking component based on the written
product. In an academic writing course, students might follow a certain
sequence for each type of essay, such as writing a rough draft, peer/teacher conferencing, editing, writing the final draft, publishing. Once they finish one type
of essay, they begin the cycle all over again for the next type.
A matrix means that elements are selected from certain categories of content,
but not in a predictable order. For example, in a theme-based course that integrates speaking, listening, reading, and writing, you could begin one unit with a
listening exercise and then follow it with a reading and discussion. The next unit
could begin with a reading, followed by a written response, followed by a speaking activity, and so on. The matrix is drawn from the way the teacher conceptualizes the content of the course, and may include skills, tasks, functions, grammatical items, vocabulary, and so on, which she or he draws from during each
unit. Denise Maksail-Fine's course uses a matrix based on her goals and objectives (see Chapter 5).
A combination of a cycle and a matrix means that within a given unit, the
course might follow a predictable sequence of learning activities, such as beginning each unit with a survey of what students know about a topic, ending each
unit with students surveying others outside of class, and some learning activities
that are drawn from a matrix.
The following diagram from the Australian Language Levels (ALL) curriculum guide Pocket ALL (Vale, Scarino and McKay 1996) provides a clear visual
of a matrix approach to organizing unit content and shows how the unit content
is chosen in order to achieve the unit objectives. The example given below is for
upper secondary school students who are learning Italian. It is a unit called
"Interviewing" within a larger syllabus module called "Self and others." The
specific goals and general objectives of the unit are listed to the left. The general
objectives are the focus of the activities at the center of the wheel. The specific
objectives in the wheel encompass general knowledge, skills development, lan-
See Chapter 5,
page 78, re goals
and objectives in
the Australian
Language Levels.
ORGANIZING THE COURSE "
141
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~I From Developing Language Syllabuses and Programs: A K-12 Series of Syllabus Exemplars-Italian
guage development, and sociocultural aspects. These specific objectives, along
with the activities listed in the center, form the matrix of what the unit will
include. A blank copy of this matrix, called a "focus wheel," is in Appendix 7-5
on page 261.
There are some cycles that are the philosophical basis for the course and are,
in a sense, the organizing principle for the course. The Language Experience
Approach is one example of a cycle as the basis for organizing a course (Dixon
1990, Rigg 1989). The problem-posing cycle used as a part of the Participatory
Approach is another example of a cycle (Auerbach and Wallerstein 1987). The
experiential learning cycle (Kolb 1984) can also form the philosophical basis of
a course. Below is a diagram representing Chris Conley's adaptation of the
problem posing cycle for his Adult Education class:
Figure 7.6:
Chris Conley's Adaptation of the Problem-posing Cycle
Evaluate action
Identify \ " e
I
lmplement\on
Develop and present
the issues as a code
j
Choose a plan of action
Analyze the issue using
~ive Dialogue Questions
A code is a way of
illustrating an
issue so that it
can be understood
from a number
of perspectives.
For example, to
illustrate
approaches to job
interviews, Chris
used the code of
two interviews,
one appropriate
and one not.
Chris describes the process:
The first steps in the cycle and sequence are to listen to the students'
concerns and to identify issues they are facing. Once an issue is
identified by the teacher or students, there is an option of waiting
before addressing the issues or of immediately developing a code.
If I decide to present the issue, I can develop a code around it, using
a variety of presentation techniques to get students to identify the
issue embedded in the code. I may use loaded pictures, phrases,
stories, dialogues, writing from students or texts, videos or any
other tool that will achieve the goal of delivering the issue to the
students. I can also use an integration of other skills to present and
practice the language of the code. In short, I can use just about any
teaching tool or technique to present a code.
Chris Conley
Once a code and its language have been presented, it needs to be analyzed by addressing critical thinking questions (5 Dialogue questions):
1. Describe the issue
2. Ask students to define the issue
3. Personalize the issue
ORGANIZING THE COURSE
8
143
4. Look at the larger context
5. Address strategies for solutions
By asking these questions, the teacher is presenting a point of view
that in order to improve our lives, we all must ask critical questions
and question the status quo that exists. The teacher and students
enter into a dialogue around the issue.
See pages
161-162 for
a unit from
Chris's course.
After the critical questions and dialogue, the students are called
upon to make some decisions as to how they can use language to
improve their lives and situations. What can students study or do in
the classroom to resolve or address the issues presented in the code?
Do they need to learn a new skill? More pronunciation? Rules of
social conduct? Again, I am able to bring into play the integration
of various language teaching techniques and methods to provide my
students with choices that may help them in their decision. Or the
students may not find the issue worth their while to study and let it
die. At this point the cycle begins again by looking for a new issue.
Once the students have had the opportunity to study language and
culture in the class, they can then move on to the implementation of
their studies in action outside the classroom. It is this step of action
in the process of participatory learning that distinguishes it from
other learner-centered approaches (Auerbach 1993 ). Learners try to
address the issue that they have been studying by reaching out to
the world and by acting within it.
After implementing some form of action, the students evaluate and
reflect upon whether or not they feel the action and study has had
the desired outcome. If they feel they need more studying, then I can
provide them with more. If they decide that another form of action
is in order, then I will provide time and space for them to make
choices. Or they may feel a sense of closure with the issue and want
to move one. At this point, we begin the process again.
One of the challenges of developing a course based on a cycle or a process is
how to integrate such language-based work with vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or specific functions. Chris Conley has integrated these aspects of
language learning into his course by asking his students to identify languagespecific aspects that might help them in dealing effectively with the issue they
have identified.
i l ) Consider Brooke Palmer's approach to unit content (see page 139), the
Australian Language Levels Italian class exemplar in Figure 7.6, and Chris
Conley's approach to unit content. Which approach to unit organization are
you most drawn to? Why? Which are you least drawn to? Why? Discuss your
answers with a colleague.
We have investigated the work of five different teachers in this chapter. The
way in which each teacher organized her or his course stems from the way in
which the teacher has conceptualized the content and determined the goals and
;}'
"'
·~~
144 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
objectives for the course. Denise Maksail-Fine has conceptualized the content in
terms of topics, grammar, and culture, and objectives in terms of development of
the four skills, cultural awareness, and cooperative learning, using the topics as
a vehicle. Toby Brody has conceptualized content based on what is found in the
newspaper and in terms of specific skills such as proposing solutions that
require the use of the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. She
has included grammar and culture within each module as well.
The way the teacher has conceptualized content and determined goals and
objectives depends in turn on the teacher's experience and the students' needs,
or what the teacher knows about their needs. In Valarie Barnes' case, her
knowledge of young adults on a holiday or vacation-that they have lots of
energy and curiosity and do not want to study grammar-led her to develop a
course organized around theme-based field trips. In Brooke Palmer's case,
knowing that being able to write and deliver a scientific research paper was a
priority for her students influenced her choices.
A teacher's beliefs also play an important role. Chris Conley believes that
adult students should make decisions for themselves about their needs and has
organized his course accordingly. The specific context in which the course takes
place also determines how the course is organized, especially the amount of
time, how often the class meets, and the resources available. Valarie's course
lasts a month, and the students meet daily for up to six hours. In Denise's case,
the course meets for a year, for approximately four hours a week. In some contexts, the schedule of examinations will play an important role in how the
course is organized.
mJ Choose one of the units you listed in Investigation 7.4.
1. Consider the way you have conceptualized the content of your course
and your goals and objectives for the course. What are your objectives
for the unit?
2. List the language learning components that will form the basis of activities in each unit so that the objectives for the unit are achieved.
Language components can include: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation,
communicative skills, tasks, intercultural skills, interpersonal skills, specific content, and so on.
3. Make a chart or mind map, or use a diagram similar to the one used for
the Australian Language Levels in Figure 7. 6, in which you experiment
with different ways to organize the content of the unit.
To close the chapter, I'd like to follow the process of a teacher as he works
through the way he organizes his course. The teacher is Dylan Bate, and he is
designing a course for Chinese university students who are studying to be
English teachers. The course is organized around themes. Decisions about unit
content-what to include in each unit relative to the theme-are governed by his
goals. These goals are: for learners to develop autonomy, for learners to develop
ORGANIZING THE COURSE •
145
cultural awareness, and for learners to improve listening and speaking. Thus
each unit will weave together work on learner strategies, cultural awareness,
and listening and speaking skills.
Dylan Bate
See page 119
for Dylan's
discussion of
feedback.
Originally, I envisioned a cyclical organization to my course on the
daily, weekly and monthly level. I still see the course as following
cycles, but now I see them as much more flexible, especially on the
daily level. The week will also be adjustable, though having a more
set routine, and the month will be pretty much as it was. The old
plan looked like this:
1. Monday: introduction to the week's theme, structures and
vocabulary.
2. Tuesday: storytelling activity, listening strategies, speaking
strategies.
3. Wednesday: code-like activity, focus on Chinese/US culture,
writing activities
See Stevick
(1998) for
more on CLL,
Silent Way.
See original grid
in Appendix 7-6
on page 262.
4. Thursday: Silent Way and CLL activities, pronunciation,
catch up, turning in speaking/listening logs
5. Friday: feedback, learning strategies, group work, games.
Each day followed a fairly strict form: warm-up activity, main
activity, group/pair work, and feedback. I had worked out a grid
with the four components of each day intersecting the schedule
above to show how it would play out in a week using a week from
the early part of the course as an example. This proved to be far too
constricting for conceptualizing what would happen. I had jumped
past the stage of putting each activity through the filter of my major
goals for the course, a far more crucial step in a course that will
have a lot of changes anyway when confronted by actual flesh and
blood students. My thoughts were that if I could establish the
actual time for each activity, and have the week fully planned, they
would suggest their own inter-relatedness and their worthiness for
inclusion in the course magically.
In fact, I found myself spending an enormous amount of time trying
to sequence and find the perfect set of activities by criteria that had
no explicit connection to the central purposes for the course. The
idea was that intuitively they would match up. Unfortunately, such
a scheme, instead of justifying the unity of these activities, made me
feel I would be teaching discrete, awkward pieces without relation
to each other. I felt discouraged by the whole process.
At this point, Dylan came to me to talk about his course. He found that trying
to explain his problem helped him realize what it was.
My scheme had become too inflexible too fast, I had skipped an
important step. I was reverting to my old mentality of "just get
something concrete down." I think many teachers think in terms of
what will happen in class on a given day; that is natural, but it is
important to step back now and then and revise classroom planning
in terms of the course goals.
146 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
I suggested that he use a grid format that could help him to see some of the relationships and connections he felt were missing. Dylan continues.
I made the new grid with my goals at the top intersecting the activities of the week. They roughly fall in the order they might be taught.
The actual order they are to follow, and the days they fall on, are
subject to many variables, most of which will only become apparent
at the time. With this in mind, I tried to realistically give enough
material to fill the five hours of class time devoted to this unit.
See grid in
Appendix 7-7
on page 263.
These changes are represented in the new improved chart. From
these revisions came a looser and more serviceable cycle, informed
on both ends by the course goals:
Figure 7.8:
The Cycle for Dylan Bate's Course Organization
1. Month
3-week routine
final week: Ss presentations
2. Week
3 days: topic oriented
1 day sundries
1 day feedback
3. Day
strategies/ activities
group work
feedback
I. Learner Autonomy
II. Cultural Awareness
Ill. Improved Speaking & Listening
Dylan's narrative raises several points. First, organizing your course is not
like putting a jigsaw puzzle together so that every piece falls neatly into place.
There are two arguments against going about course design in that way. The
first is that it is an exercise in abstraction that will end in frustration. I experienced this a few years ago when I was teaching a course to the non-native speakers of English in our undergraduate and graduate programs. I decided that I
wanted it to have a four-skills focus and so devised a nice looking syllabus with
the four skills evenly distributed. I had a video for listening, individual oral presentations for speaking, student selected texts for reading, and papers they had
written for other classes for writing.
The course had no coherence because there was no organizing principle and
so what the students did with each skill had no relation to the other. I had to
drastically revise the syllabus so that I could save the course. We ended up using
the video, which was on cultural differences in communication styles, as the
vehicle for listening, vocabulary development, and discussion. The readings
were chosen to link to the individual oral presentations given by the students.
The course was somewhat better, but still disjointed. Were I to do the course
ORGANIZING THE COURSE
8
147
over again, I would choose an organizing principle, such as topics. I would try
to integrate the four skills around a few topics, such as communication styles,
while still leaving room for student choice.
The second reason for not approaching course design as a jigsaw puzzle is
that you leave out the students. When the course doesn't work, the tendency is
to blame the students for not "getting it" rather than adjusting the course to
their needs.
A second point raised in Dylan's narrative is the need to make choices and to
justify them. Dylan's first tendency was to put everything he knew and wanted
to try into the syllabus. The result was a mishmash that had no coherence.
When he reminded himself of his three goals, they drove his syllabus and provided the basis for his choices. The conceptual container that supports your
course must, ultimately, be based on what makes sense to you.
fii!J
Outline as much as you can of the syllabus for your course. Discuss why
you organized it that way with a partner. Make changes to it based on what you
clarified during the discussion
Suggested Readings
I like the approach to organizing a course in Pocket ALL (1996), a teacher's
guide to implementing the Australian Language Levels Guidelines for primary
and secondary school teachers. It contains examples of "syllabus modules" and
ways to organize them into units of work using a matrix approach.
Although at first glance Hutchinson and Waters' chapter on materials design
in English for Specific Purposes (1987) would seem to be a suggested reading in
the chapter on developing materials, I include it here because they describe a
useful model for developing a unit of work, which Brooke Palmer refers to in
this chapter in her reflections about her ESP course design.
For further ideas about criteria for sequencing, see the section titled "What
Criteria May Be Used to Select, Grade, and Sequence Tasks?" on pages 96-98 in
Numa Markee's book, Managing Curricular Innovation (1997).
I
il'
J
!I.
If.
II'
II'
II:II
148
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
-
·-
-
··-------------~-~-----
8
DEVELOPING MATERJALS
M
aterials development is the planning process by which a teacher creates
units and lessons within those units to carry out the goals and objectives of
the course. In a sense, it is the process of making your syllabus more and more
specific. Materials development takes place on a continuum of decision-making
and creativity which ranges from being given a textbook and a timetable in
which to "cover it"-least responsibility and decision-making-to developing all
the materials you will use in class "from scratch"-most responsibility and creativity. Neither extreme is desirable. When teachers are required to strictly
adhere to a textbook and timetable there is little room for them to make decisions and to put to use what they have learned from experience, which, in effect,
"deskills" the teacher (Apple 1986). The teacher is viewed as simply a technician
and not a professional. On the other hand, the majority of teachers are not paid
or do not have the time in their schedules to develop all the materials for every
course they teach.
However, because a teacher does not have responsibility for choosing materials, does not mean that she cannot exercise creativity in using them. Teachers can
be involved in materials development from the moment they pick up a textbook
and teach from it. This is because a teacher will inevitably have to make decisions about how long to spend on certain activities, which ones to skip or assign
for homework if there isn't enough time, which ones to modify so that they are
relevant to that particular group of students. A teacher who changes the names
of the people in a textbook exercise for practicing phone numbers to those of the
students in the class is exercising responsibility and creativity. In Chapter 9 we
will focus specifically on adapting a textbook. In this chapter we will focus on
adapting existing materials and developing new materials as part of a coherent
plan for teaching one's course.
THE SCOPE OF MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
What are materials? What are techniques? Is there a difference between a technique and an activity? The boundaries between materials, techniques, and activities are blurred. On first reflection, one might say that materials are what a
teacher uses, and techniques and activities are how she uses them. While that
might have been true for language materials twenty years ago, it is no longer
true. Part of the blurring of boundaries stems from the different ways which one
can conceptualize content. If you conceptualize content as a skill-learning to
write, for example-then materials will of necessity include activities. For example, Teli Pinheiro Franco, a teacher in Brazil, describes writing materials she
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
149
developed for a teens' course, in terms of a series writing activities that result in
a final piece of writing (1996). In a task-based course, the organizing unit is the
task, which is focused on using language to get something done.
What is the difference between an activity and a technique? Again, the
boundary is blurred. For me, the distinction is related to repertoire. When I
teach language, there are certain types of activities that I rely on, regardless of
the class I teach. In my case, this includes having students work in pairs and
small groups for practice activities, using scrambled sentences and texts to work
with syntax and discourse, categorizing for vocabulary learning, using my fingers to represent sentence elements for correction, using the "Human computer"
(Rardin and Tranel 1988) and analysis techniques for pronunciation, rhythm,
and intonation, having students give me regular feedback on the class, and so
on. These activities comprise my repertoire of core techniques. I do add activities to my repertoire (and discard them), depending on what I have learned from
the teachers I teach, from a presentation at the latest conference, from something I've read, or from something discovered by chance as I teach. (I also have
a repertoire of core techniques for teaching teachers.) The basis on which a core
technique becomes part of my repertoire depends on a variety of factors which
include: what I want my students to learn, what role I want my students to play,
my understanding of how people learn in general, and how they learn languages
in particular, what I am comfortable doing, what I feel my students will be comfortable doing, and the resources available.
For a teacher designing a course, materials development means creating,
choosing or adapting, and organizing materials and activities so that students
can achieve the objectives that will help them reach the goals of the course. In
order to understand the scope of materials development and where it fits within
designing a course, we can refer to the flow chart for organizing a course from
Chapter 7, Figure 7.1, page 125. For practical purposes, materials development
takes place at the unit level, numbers 4 and 5 in the chart, and within a unit, at
the lesson level. The chart is now expanded to include developing materials.
Figure 8.1:
Five Aspects of Organizing a Course
Detennining the
organizing principle(s)
Identifying the course units based
on the organizing principle(s)
(e.g., themes, genres, tasks)
Detennining unit content
and developing materials
For the purposes of this book, materials development encompasses decisions
about the actual materials you use-textbook, text, pictures, worksheets, video,
and so on, as well as the activities students do, and how the materials and activ-
150
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
ities are organized into lessons. The materials you develop are influenced by
your beliefs and understandings about teaching and learning languages as they
apply to your particular course in its particular context. In this respect, the
process of materials development involves deciding how to put your teaching
principles into practice.
ON WHAT BASIS DOES ONE CHOOSE, ADAPT, OR
DEVELOP MATERIALS?
a:JI
You have been given the following piece of authentic material (four housing ads from a United States newspaper) as the basis for creating a unit. You
define the context for which you will create the materials for the unit. Sketch out
a list of ideas for the materials. Then make a list of what you took into consideration as you sketched out your ideas.
1. Studio. carpet, appls, gas and
elec. incl. Near beach, on bus
route. $395 . Month-to-month.
258-4135
3. Furn 1 BR $450 + uti I. Conv loc
near shopping, transportation.
No pets. Sublet 6 months-1 year.
346-5967.
2. House, quiet, country living
only 40 miles from downtown.
3 bedrooms, backyard, garage,
W/D HT and HW. Pets OK.
Call 555-3980 after 6.
4. Duplex, 2 bedrooms, stove, frig,
carport. $610. gas incl.
Best schools. 3-year lease.
Please call 246-8004
T
he list you make can help you get to the core of what you consider important in developing materials. To decide what to do with the ads you need to
consider who the students are and whether they have a real need for finding a
place to live. If they do, what are their needs regarding housing and how can
learning to read housing ads help them in finding a place to live? Are they likely
to encounter discrimination and, if they are, how will the activities address that?
If they don't have immediate needs related to housing, then other factors guide
your decisions. One of those factors is the goals for your course. For example, if
one of your goals is for students to develop cross-cultural awareness skills, then
the ads could be used as a basis for understanding aspects of U.S. culture and
contrasting it with their own. If one of your goals is for students to improve reading skills, then the ads could be used as a basis for different kinds of reading.
Another factor is your view of how students learn and what you think their
role and yours should be in the classroom. If you feel it is important for students
to take initiative in order to learn, then the activities you develop will reflect
that. If you believe that students learn in multiple ways, then variety will be
important. If you feel that students' affective needs are important, for example,
that students need to build self confidence, then you will consider how you
sequence the activities so that students can produce the language confidently.
Additionally, you need to consider the types of activities they will do, for example, discussions or role plays, and the aspects of language they need to learn in
order to carry out the activity successfully.
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
151
-----------------
----------
I have given these four ads to teachers in a variety of settings, notably groups
of EFL teachers in Brazil and groups of mostly North American teachers in the
United States. The following is a synthesis of their collective wisdom and ideas
about what they considered when designing activities, why, and examples of
activities or ways of organizing the activities.
The first one was the most frequent consideration:
1. Activities should draw on what students know (their experience,
their current situation) and be relevant to them
11
to draw on what they know before moving to what is new;
1111
to validate their experience;
1111
to use what they know as the language basis for the lesson;
11111
to engage their interest.
Examples:
Students make a list of what they consider when looking for a
place to live.
Students describe how to go about finding a place to live in their
country or, if residents in another country, how they found the
housing they have.
Write "home" on board; make a word map in response to
"What does it mean to you?"
Students describe their housing as a basis for vocabulary.
The second one was raised mainly by teachers who taught immigrants in the
United States. They also pointed out that if the students had literacy needs, the
ads would not be appropriate:
2. Activities should focus on students' outside of class needs,
if appropriate
1111
so that needs can be met.
Examples:
Brainstorm issues and questions about their actual housing.
Students make a list of what they need in housing.
This point addresses students' affective needs: how confident they feel about
reading English, speaking English in front of their peers or outside of class; how
they feel about making mistakes:
3. Activities should build students' confidence
1111
so students can feel confident in transferring what learned
outside of class.
Examples:
Sequence the activities so they provide enough practice.
Narrow the focus of the activity so students can be successful.
152 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
This point addresses the teachers' view of how learners learn as well as student motivation:
4. Activities should allow students to problem solve, discover, analyze
IIIII
so that students will be engaged;
IIIII
so that students will use language.
Examples:
Abbreviations matching exercise.
Analyze why housing ads are written the way they are.
Students figure out in small groups then get together and share.
Brainstorm questions to ask landlord.
Students create own categories for housing information.
This point addresses how to ensure students learn skills which can be transferred to other learning contexts in or outside of the classroom, such as learning
reading strategies:
5. Activities should help students develop specific skills and strategies
1111
so that they can transfer skills to other learning situations.
Examples:
Read for main idea then read for specific information.
Guess or match abbreviations.
This point addresses both the areas of the syllabus you want to cover as well as
the need to provide the building blocks for writing, listening, reading, or speaking in real (or realistic) situations:
6. Activities should help students develop specific language and skills
they need for authentic communication
1111
so that students learn and practice vocabulary, grammar,
functions, etc. that they can use in real situations.
Examples:
Work on vocabulary so they can access text and be able to speak.
Do work on grammar and 4 skills before culture.
Brainstorm questions to ask landlord prior to role play.
This point addresses a view of language and literacy as involving both oral and
written channels in both receptive and productive modes:
7. Activities should integrate the four skills of speaking, listening,
reading, and writing
1111
because the four skills mutually reinforce each other.
Examples:
Follow up reading with telephone activity to answer ad; role-play
renter/landlord.
DEVELOPING MATERIALS •
153
Write an ad for their current apartment or home.
If teachers use authentic texts in their classes (spoken or written), students need
to understand how they are constructed and why they are constructed that way.
8. Activities should enable students to understand how a text is
constructed
IIIII
so that students can gain access to similar texts.
Examples:
Analyze why housing ads are written the way they are.
Use real newspapers to determine where to find this information.
9. Activities should enable students to understand cultural context and
cultural differences
IIIII
so they can have more confidence in target culture and understand own culture better.
Examples:
Discuss how housing is found in the United States vs. in their
culture.
Ensure they know how decisions are made and communicated in
the United States vs. in their culture.
Writing own ads: Would an ad like this be written in their culture?
If so, how would it be different?
Analyzing the ad: What does the way the ad is written tell you
about U.S. culture?
10. Activities should enable students to develop social awareness
1111
so they can navigate systems in target culture.
Examples:
Help students to know rights and responsibilities.
Make sure students understand not only customs with respect
to renting, but issues such as discrimination based on race,
children, age.
11. Activities should be as authentic as possible
IIIII
so that students see relationship with real language use;
1111
so that students gain experience with real language use.
Examples:
Contextualize activities: friend is moving, what are friend's needs,
choose an ad based on needs.
What is process followed in the United States? Follow sequence.
Provide authentic speaking practice: role-play talking to landlord
over telephone; meeting with landlord.
Provide newspapers and find other ads.
154 °
DESIGNING LANGUAGE CoURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
This point addresses two issues, one pedagogical, one social:
12. Activities should vary the roles and groupings
1111
1111
within the class: so that students get different types of practice
and responsibilities;
with respect to social context: so that students experience
/analyze different social roles.
Examples:
Students figure out (e.g., why housing ads are written the way
they are) in small groups, then get together and share.
Students present what they know: students become teachers.
Students role-play renter and landlord.
13. Activities should be of various types and purposes
1111
to provide adequate practice.
Examples:
Students create own ad.
Students role-play.
14. Activities should use authentic texts or realia when possible
1111
so that students are familiar with/have access to language as used
in "real world."
Example:
Bring in newspapers.
15. Activities should employ a variety of materials
Ill
to engage students;
Ill
to meet different learning needs.
Examples:
Visuals (pictures), print, audio, video, objects, realia.
I have summarized the fifteen considerations above on the following chart.
I find it interesting that the chart, which is derived from the teachers' ideas,
includes the three areas drawn from Stern (1992), which served as the framework for conceptualizing content in Chapter 4: language, learners and learning,
and social context. In terms of social context, the sociolinguistic area is not
explicitly mentioned by the teachers and could be added to the list. The chart
includes two additional categories: "Activity/Task Types" and "Materials,"
which are specifically related to the process of materials development.
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
155
Figure 8.2:
AList of Considerations for Developing Materials
Social Context
Learners
1. make relevant to their experience
and background
2. make relevant to their target needs
(outside of class)
3. make relevant to their affective
needs
9. provide intercultural focus
10. develop critical social awareness
Activity/Task Types
11. aim for authentic tasks
12. vary roles and groupings
13. vary activities and purposes
Learning
4. engage in discovery, problem
solving, analysis
5. develop specific skills and strategies
Materials
14. authentic (texts, realia)
15. varied (print, visuals, audio, etc.)
Language
6. target relevant aspects (grammar,
functions, vocabulary, etc.)
7. integrate four skills of speaking,
listening, reading, and writing
8. use/understand authentic texts
m
Amend the list above based on the lists of ideas and considerations you
developed in Investigation 8.1
An important aspect of materials development is making choices. You can't
target everything and so you need to make choices based on what you want
your students to learn according to your goals and objectives and your syllabus
focus. The word "authentic" appears several times on the chart above.
Authentic material refers to spoken and written texts that are used by native
speakers in the "real world" (Omaggio Hadley 1993). Authentic tasks are those
that native speakers engage in in the "real world."
Using authentic material is problematic in the L2 classroom because it is not
constructed to contain only the aspects of language the learner has encountered
or learned up until that point and so may not be entirely accessible to the learner. There are good reasons to use pedagogically prepared material in order to
provide the stepping stones to understanding and using authentic material. For
example, the four advertisements, while they were taken from a newspaper, are
not in the context of the newspaper. To be truly authentic, they would need to
appear in the newspaper. In fact, the advertisements were chosen to show a
range of housing possibilities. Thus, regarding authentic material, you have
choices along the following continuum:
156
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Material: pedagogically prepared .,._semi-authentic~ authentic
There is a similar continuum of choices around the tasks or activities the
learners engage in. The continuum looks like this:
Tasks/activities: pedagogical..,._real world~ in the real world
In the case of using the advertisements, an "in the real world" task would be for
students to call about an actual housing advertisement. This task would not be
possible in EFL settings, and, even though feasible, might not be appropriate in
an ESL setting. A "real world" task would be a role play of a telephone conversation with a landlord. A pedagogical task would be to read a scripted dialogue
between a prospective tenant and a landlord.
The continuum of choice around language the learners produce (spoken or
written) is similar:
Language output (by students): controlled ...o!l(llf-~)loo,_Open-ended
Controlled language output would require students to practice certain grammatical structures or language functions or vocabulary items in order to gain
mastery of them, often called a focus on accuracy. Open-ended language output
allows students to use all the language in their repertoire to complete an activity. In some senses, of course, all language output is controlled by the context in
which it is used. A more comprehensive way of looking at controlled versus
open-ended language output that relates specifically to materials development is
the distinction between an activity and an exercise, used in the Australian
Language Levels guidelines. An activity is related to the open-ended output on
the continuum above and involves "the purposeful and active use of language
where learners are required to call upon their language resources to meet the
needs of a given communicative situation." (Vale, Scarino and McKay 1991,
p.94 ). An exercise is designed to help learners master specific aspects of communication in a more controlled fashion. "An exercise focuses on one or more elements of the communication process in order to promote learning of the items
of language, knowledge, skills, and strategies in communication activities."
When developing materials it is important to have a balance of activities and
exercises. Too many exercises and too few activities will impede development of
the ability to communicate in the real world, while too many activities and not
enough exercises will deny students the opportunity to develop the language and
skills they need to communicate effectively.
EXAMPLES OF MATERIALS
Below, we will look at a unit on Telephone Technology from Cyndy ThatcherSee pages
Fettig's speaking and listening course in a university intensive English program. 114-116 for Cyndy
The students are from different countries and are at a high intermediate/low Thatcher-Fettig's
advanced level. Classes meet five days a week for one and a half hours a day. approach to needs
assessment.
Some activities are adapted from the book Sound Ideas in the Tapestry series
&
Heinle
1995).
(Heinle
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
157
I'D
Study the following unit from Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig's speaking and
listening course.
1. What do you like about the unit and why? What don't you like and
why not?
2. What can you infer from the unit about her goals and objectives for
the course?
3. Which aspects of the list of considerations in Figure 8.1 above does
she address?
4. Choose one of the continua on the preceding pages (for material, for
tasks/activities and for language output) and find activities or materials in her unit that fall on different ends of the continuum.
Unit: Telephone Technology
w:
, 11
Monday: Beginning of new unit-Telephone Technology
illl!
(Students have been assigned the article "Voice Mail: not the answer?"
prior to the unit and asked to be prepared to discuss questions based on
the article. See Appendix 8-1 on page 264.)
II
I. Schema Activation:
I,Il1l
I:j\
Schema refers to
one's background
knowledge of a
given subject.
1111
111
1111
Activate students' schema on telephone technology by writing quote
on the board-"One hundred years ago, the telephone was invented to
allow people to talk to each other. Now it's being used to help people
avoid talk."
Students discuss quote in pairs-then as a whole class.
Review vocabulary-voice mail, answering machine, call waiting,
cellular phones, facsimile, technophobia, caller ID.
II. Communication Strategies:
1111
Review handout on clarifying and paraphrasing (see Appendix 8-2
on page 267).
111
Students listen to a taped conversation and write down the instances
of clarifying and paraphrasing.
111
Student practice in pairs using strategic expressions during miniconversations (two minutes) with a third student monitoring to see
whether or not they're using the strategies.
Ill. Discussion
(Based on homework article "Voice Mail: not the answer?")
158 •
111
Students establish a discussion leader (responsible for full group
participation, and continuous movement of discussion).
Ill
Students discuss homework questions in groups of five.
1111
Report findings or issues back to large group.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Homework: Listen to tape in the language laboratory-Chapter two:
Listening Passage #2, parts A and B (see Appendix 8-1 on page 265).
Tuesday:
I. Warm-up:
111
Students review cartoon and discuss questions in pairs (see Appendix
8-1 on page 266).
111
Discuss meanings and reactions in large group.
II. Review Homework:
111
Students briefly summarize the taped dialogues-Part A and Part B.
111
Students share their descriptions.
111
Discuss questions.
Ill. Simulation Preparation:
111
Students brainstorm on board the pros and cons of having telephone
technology in business.
111
Students choose roles of simulation (projcon see Appendix 8-4 on
page 269) and get together with students that have their same role.
111
Students talk about the stance they're going to take in the simulated
office meeting, their reasons behind it, and how they're going to say it.
Homework: Practice part for the simulation.
Wednesday:
I. Simulation:
111
Students break into their office meeting groups and begin simulation.
11
Discuss results with other groups.
II. Functional Situations-Telephoning
111
1111
111
Discussion of telephoning fears-why it's difficult to talk on the
telephone, why you don't like to, personal experiences, problems, etc.
Students fill out as much of the blank handout (see Appendix 8-3 on
page 268) as they can.
Review expressions as a class (expressions, meaning, pronunciation).
Homework: Review telephone handout and finish filling the rest as best they
can (possibly interviewing native speakers on the expressions they use).
Thursday:
I. Review of handout:
1111
Review telephone handout (new expressions, pronunciation)
II. Practice expressions:
111
1111
Practice with students (Teacher calling students, then teacher calling
individual students, then students calling each other-back to back for
full effect).
Students listen to taped telephone conversations-focus on discrete
information (fill in the blanks, questions).
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
159
Ill. Use:
1111
Students practice expressions with role-play cards (examples
in Appendix 8-4 on page 269).
Homework: Call my house and ask for my fiance. Leave a message.
Friday:
I. Review homework:
1111
Talk about general areas of success and things to work on when
calling. Talk with individual students that need help privately after class.
11. Warm-up: Telephone situations
1111
1111
Students read the situation (examples in Appendix 8-4 on page 269)
in pairs and act it out.
Discuss any questions, issues, concerns raised.
Ill. Calling for information:
1111
Discuss personal experiences about calling places to get information
(bus schedules, store information, bank statement, bills, etc.)
111
Review handout with students and practice pronunciation of set
expressions (see Appendix 8-5 on page 270).
111
Listen to taped telephone conversations of customers asking for
information.
111
Do practice situation in pairs.
111
Have a few pairs demonstrate.
Homework: Call some place for information: store, bus depot, train
station, telephone companies, travel agents, movie theaters, etc.
Come prepared to share the information you received.
How is the unit above a realization of Cyndy's syllabus? In Chapter 7, we
explored the idea that the basis for the content of a unit is the way you have conceptualized content and the goals and objectives for the course as they relate to
the organizing principle. Cyndy's course is organized around weekly topics, each
with associated functions. The aim of her course is for students to improve their
listening and speaking skills so that they can function independently in both
daily and academic contexts. To investigate specifically how her unit is a realization of her goals and objectives, consult Appendix 8-6 on page 271.
The unit above is clearly a realization of her syllabus, although she hasn't
explicitly focused on daily versus academic uses of the telephone. Within the
topic of telephone technology, she has targeted a variety of functions, some associated with using the telephone, some associated with negotiation. She has provided ample speaking and listening practice in a variety of contexts, including "in
the real world." In terms of the chart in Figure 8.2, Cyndy has targeted all of the
areas except, perhaps, the social context. For example, there is not an overt focus
on the differences between the students' own cultures and that of the United
States, although this may emerge in some of the activities such as on Wednesday
when they talk about their individual experiences using the telephone.
160
° DESIGNING
LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
It is clear from Cyndy's unit, that any given activity will account for more
than one aspect of the chart in Figure 8.2. For example, the activity mentioned
above, asking students about their individual experiences and fears with the
telephone, makes the topic relevant (#1), and can surface needs, both target
needs and affective needs (#s 2 and 3). The simulation on the same day, enables
students to develop specific skills in negotiation (#5) while practicing the functions and vocabulary they have learned (#6), in different roles (#12).
We will now turn to a different course and course context. The following is a
unit from Chris Conley's course for adult immigrants in which he shows one
way to implement the action portion of his cycle (see Chapter 7).
m
Study the following unit from Chris Conley's course.
1. What appeals to you about the unit? Why? What doesn't appeal to you?
Why not?
2. Which aspect of the chart in Figure 8.2 did he take into consideration in
developing materials?
3. How are his materials similar to and how are they different from Cyndy
Thatcher-Fettig's? What accounts for the differences?
A Plan of Action
The students in this adult ESL class are from the Dominican Republic,
Vietnam, Guatemala, and countries in Eastern Europe. They are at the low
intermediate-intermediate level. Based on work they have done in previous
classes, students have decided that they would like to invite someone
from the business community to present information to them about what
they are studying.
Objectives:
Students will
111
become aware of different styles of written invitations
111
be able to identify some differences and similarities between cultural
styles of inviting
111
be able to recognize and identify the various components of a
formal letter
1111
be able to write a formal invitation in English
Pre-writing
1. Teacher shows 4 types of invitations (see Appendix 8-7 on pages
272-27 4) and asks questions about them. Are they formal? informal?
What is each invitation for? Is it an event? How is it presented-typed
or handwritten? Is it personal? Professional?
2. Students get into same-culture groups and are told that they will invite
someone from their culture to the class. They write in their language
and style.
DEVELOPING MATERIALS •
161
3. They present letters to the class. What are the components?
Is it formal or informal? Personal? Typed or handwritten?
4. The teacher will post them on the walls for reference and reminders
for the students to fall back on.
5. Students look at the 4 samples the teacher presented and choose
the style which best fits their needs at the moment. It is hoped they
will choose the formal business style invitation, although not certain.
6. They analyze why they chose this style.
7. The teacher posts this along with the other invitations on the wall as
reference.
Writing
1. Students brainstorm the layout of the letter: what should go in it, the
order, how long it should be.
2. Students form culturally mixed groups of 3 and as a group make a first
draft of the invitation.
3. They present their invitation. The teacher makes notes of the different
letters on poster paper so that they can compare and contrast what
they have done.
4. The students discuss how to pull together information from all the
invitations into one. The students dictate the letter to the teacher, who
transcribes onto poster paper. The teacher is only the scribe. He does
not add, subtract, or correct.
Post-writing
1. The teacher has the students read the letter out loud, one student
taking one sentence. Then they read it silently.
2. Students are asked to consider how they would edit the letter: global
changes in format or local changes in grammar.
3. Students copy the letter and read it at home for homework.
Next class
1. Students review the invitation and are asked for any additional
changes.
2. Students type the letter.
3. Letter is mailed.
How is the lesson above related to Chris's conceptualization of his course as a
whole? Here are his reflections:
1. Sequence of the cycle: One theme or issue is presented at a time
and it goes through the cycle as far as the students deem it
necessary or beneficial for their life or English class. (See cycle
in Chapter 7 page 143.)
Chris Conley
2. Action: Study language and issues in the class; transform study
to action in the classroom and in the real world.
3. Throughout the course-begin with more teacher-centered
involvement and production of ideas and materials; then
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move toward a more student-centered production (independence
learning).
4. Within a lesson:
A. Move from the objective (looking at an issue from
another's viewpoint) to subjective (looking at the issue
from the personal point of view).
B. Begin with a focus more on language (grammar, pronunciation, etc.) and move toward the underlying cultural lesson
(the issue that is embedded in the language).
C. Begin with more controlled exercises of presentation and
practice and move toward freer activities using the language.
SEQUENCING
Chris has raised the issue of sequencing activities within a unit. The same principles of sequencing, building and recycling, that apply to course organization
apply to unit organization. At the unit level, building from step A to step B can
be understood as:
Step A is simpler, step B is more complex.
For example, in Chris's unit, students write a letter in their own
language prior to constructing one in the target language.
Step A is more controlled, step B is more open-ended, requires
more initiative.
For example, in Cyndy's unit, on Friday, Sequence III, "Calling for
information," students practice set expressions prior to practicing
situations in pairs; the pair practice precedes the actual calling of a
place for information.
Step A provides knowledge or skills required to do step B.
For example, in Chris's unit, students analyze examples of
invitations in order to write their own invitations.
Step A uses receptive skills (listening/reading), step Buses
productive skills (speaking /listening) [or input before action].
In Cyndy's unit, students listen to a taped telephone conversation,
prior to producing their own. They read and study a handout with
functional expressions prior to practicing them.
Step A uses productive skills to activate knowledge, Step B uses
receptive skills to consolidate knowledge.
In Cyndy's unit, the students talk about what they know about
telephone technology prior to studying vocabulary and expressions
on a handout.
Other approaches to sequencing include:
Ill
going from the other (another's viewpoint) to self, the subjective
(one's own viewpoint).
DEVELOPING MATERIALS •
163
In some classes, it is typical to use others' viewpoints or experiences as preparation for talking or writing about one's own. In Chris's unit, students write a letter in their language after they have read and analyzed four letters in English.
11!11
or the steps could be reversed, from personal experience
to universal experience.
In some classes, students' begin with their personal experiences in order to
understand and make generalizations about the experiences of others.
As in the organization of a course, recycling is another important aspect of
organizing and sequencing materials. Language acquisition is not a linear, discrete process, but an organic and unpredictable one (Larsen-Freeman 1997).
Learners do not necessarily learn something the first time they encounter it, and
so it is important to present material more than once and in different ways in
order to aid the acquisition process. Recycling means that something that has
been introduced is then learned in connection with something else, so that it is
both "reused" and learned in more depth.
Ways to recycle include:
11!11
recycling something using a different skill. In Cyndy's unit,
students listen to taped phone conversations prior to using oral
skills in a telephone role play
Ill
recycling something in a different context. In Cyndy's unit,
students call for information using practice situations, then call
for information in a real situation.
Ill
recycling something using a different learning technique.
In Chris's unit, students compare letters they have written and
then dictate one group letter to the teacher
Below we will look at Denise Maksail-Fine's plan for one of the units of her
Spanish 3 course. This is a course she has taught for three years in an American
high school in rural upstate New York. She is redesigning it to make it a more
communicative and less grammar-based course.
11!0
Look at Denise Maksail-Fine's materials for a unit in her syllabus for a
Spanish 3 course in an American high school.
1. What do you like about her approach to materials development? What
don't you like?
2. Find examples from the unit which show how different activities build
on each other and how material is recycled in the unit.
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Unit 2: family Life
Week3
Day 1
Mind map "Ia familia"
For information
about the Natural
Approach see
Krashen and
Terrell (1983).
Natural Approach Listening Activity with visuals, follow-up
questions
Create a class vocabulary list.
Day 2
Warm-up: riddle
Rod Activity "mi familia": volunteer student describes his/her
family using rods; students take turns giving understanding
responses; students query speaker. Repeat with another
volunteer.
Concentration using local community members. Example: I am
Bob Smith's mother's father. Who am I? Students match clues
with names.
Day 3
Warm-up: trivia question on Mexican Independence
Readings (2) on Mexican Independence: Students are split into
four equal groups. Two groups receive one reading, the other two
receive the other reading. After reading, each group summarizes
key points from their reading in writing, and then presents it to
one of the groups who did the other reading.
Song: La Cucaracha
Day 4
Warm-up: joke
Picture Description: Large pictures of people are posted along
chalkboard on newsprint.
Students come up one at a time and introduce people from the
photos as family members. After identifying the individual(s), students write a short descriptive sentence underneath the picture
in black marker. After each student has had a turn, students
correct any noun-adjective agreement errors using green marker.
Students other than the ones who have done the correcting are
asked to state and restate any patterns they observe with regard
to noun-adjective agreement.
Strip Sentence Competition: Students work in pairs; each pair
is given a set of index card strips that contain elements of
sentences. During a period of 5-7 minutes, students manipulate
the strips to create as many different sentences as possible,
making required agreement changes, and record each variation.
The pair with the most correct sentences wins.
Day 5
Warm-up: proverb
Mind map: transition words
Whole Group Story Creation: students add sentences about
family members' activities to Day 4's picture description sentences. Then, as a group, students take turns to create a story
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
165
using the picture description sentences and adding transition
words and sentences where appropriate.
Journal activity
Week4
Day6
Warm-up: How was your weekend?
Reading: Typical Latino Families. Pre-reading-skim/scan
activities. Students then read article once, restate key points
for partner, reread, whole group summarization.
Discussion: Key differences and similarities between AngloAmerican and Latino Families.
Day 7
Warm-up: riddle
Reread article on families from Day 6, paying particular attention
to the use of definite and indefinite articles. Students deduce the
most common uses from the reading, volunteering other uses not
found in reading.
Gloze Activities: articles
Day 8
Warm-up: trivia question
Introduce parameters for process writing in Spanish class.
Process Writing Activity: Students begin to gather and discuss
and write ideas about their families (real or imaginary), what they
are like, common family activities, how they are alike andjor
different from Anglo-American families and Hispanic families.
Day 9
Warm-up: joke
Continue Process Writing-grammatical focus: articles.
Day 10 Warm-up: proverb
Continue Process Writing-grammatical focus: articles.
HOW DOES ONE DEVELOP MATERIALS?
Decisions about developing materials are rooted in your beliefs, understandings,
and experience. They also depend on your goals and objectives, the way you
conceptualize the content of the course, the way you organize and sequence
your course, and your understanding of your students' needs. Your experience
has provided you with a basis for decision making as well as a repertoire of techniques. For example, some of the materials may already be in place in the form
of routines you use such as warm ups; cycles such as process writing; or your
method of assessment such as learning logs or portfolios. It helps to look at the
course organization as a way of getting started-the organizing principle and
unit content, as well as the time frame which provides the "temporal container"
for the course.
It also helps to look at your goals and objectives. One teacher, John
Kongsvik, developed an interesting technique to ensure that the materials he
developed for his syllabus were, in fact, a realization of his goals and objectives.
He had five goals, to each of which he assigned a different color. He drew up an
initial course syllabus, outlining the activities on a day-by-day basis. He then
166 •
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went through his syllabus chart and underlined each activity according to which
goal he felt it addressed. In some cases, an activity had more than one color
under it. After he had gone through the entire syllabus chart, he was able to see
the way in which each goal was or wasn't being addressed according to how
often the color appeared.
10 Develop the materials for a unit for your course. These include the texts,
visuals, etc. as well as the activities students will do. (Refer to Cyndy ThatcherFettig's unit on pages 158-160, Chris Conley's unit on pages 161-163, and
Denise Maksail- Fine's on pages 165-166.)
1. Consider your course organization: what the unit focus is and what
the unit content is, according to your goals and objectives. Refer to
Investigation 7. 9 on page 145 in which you made a list of language
components and skills you wanted to include. Consider your
context: how long you have for the unit, who your students are,
institutional givens.
As you develop the materials:
2. make a note of how you are taking into consideration the elements
on the chart in Figure 8.2.
3. consider the continua on pages 156-157 and whether you have
a balance of exercises that target specific language and skills, and
activities that allow students to draw on the entirety of their language
learning resources.
4. consider the ways in which the activities build on each other and
recycle language and skills.
I'd like to end this chapter with Iris Broudy's description of her process in developing a unit for her theme-based course for adults offered at a university in Mexico.
It's easy to get attached to your materials, especially when you
have invested a lot of time and energy in developing them. That's
what happened when I produced the two-week unit on the theme
"Relationships."
Iris Broudy
She goes on to say that some of her aims in developing the unit were to integrate
the four skills, use the Internet as a resource, and incorporate video. She continues:
Soon I had a stack of possible activities. When it came time to
sequence the materials, I paid attention to recycling and reinforcement and working in the various elements of my syllabus. I carefully
divided each day's lesson plan into specified time chunks, with each
activity leading nicely into the next. And before I knew it, I had two
weeks filled with an interesting mix of grammar, vocabulary, functions, and skills-all integrated into lively, communicative activities.
DEVELOPING MATERIALS •
167
But I felt uneasy about my beautiful product. It seemed too
organized. It lacked spontaneity. The activities themselves were
communicative, and I did leave some slots to work on grammar
and pronunciation that might come up, but I had left almost nothing to chance-or to the students. Even if I was fairly certain what
would interest this general student population, was I allowing much
room for the actual learners to collaborate in their own learning
process? No, not really.
After reflecting on this dilemma, Iris continues:
I still like most of the materials I developed for this module.
However, they are only a resource, to be selected or adapted as
it seems appropriate. I must remember that it is not the materials
themselves, but what the students do with them that is important.
At the same time, I need to keep reminding myself that materials
can be developed without high-tech resources and hours of
planning, and those may be the ones that best respond to the
immediate needs of the students.
Following is a general plan and a set of materials for one module
of English Conversation 600 (see pages 169-170). The theme,
"Relationships," includes some subtopics that could be covered in
the module. Others can be generated by the students. There are nine
different types of materials, along with activities for each. I have
also indicated the cultural, linguistic, and communicative elements
that are integrated into these activities.
My objective was to provide a rich and engaging variety of activities
that would relate to the different stages of the language acquisition
process and connect with a wide variety of learning styles.
She then goes on to talk about sequencing.
On my first go-round, I interpreted sequencing to mean that every
lesson plan should be perfectly planned out and timed. However,
such preciseness makes the lessons too materials-centered and thus
too rigid. Classroom management is important; good pacing and
time use are essential for enjoyable, effective learning. However,
as Stevick (1980) points out, there needs to be a proper balance
between teacher control and student initiative. If I want to minimize
teacher control, then I prefer to think of sequencing less as lesson
planning and more in terms of language acquisition. My objective
with these materials is first to familiarize students with a language
form (or function, or strategy), then have them produce it in controlled exercises, and finally to begin producing it in free use. As
for accuracy and fluency, I am still wrestling with what the balance
should be and how and when to do error correction. Ongoing
needs assessment (through feedback, dialogue journals, and teacher
observation) and negotiation with the students will help me to form
criteria in this area.
168 °
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
...
An Overview of One Module of English 600
Theme: Relationships
Possible subtopics: Friendship
Dating
Love/romance
Family
Social plans
Materials/activities for the module:
1. Dating Questionnaire
111
Phrasal verbs
111
Hypothetical conditional: controlled conversation
111
Look for potential dates through "the personals" (use realia)
111
Write and answer own personals
2. The Rules: Time Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right
111
Jigsaw reading/discussion of Time book review
111
Read/discuss consumer opinions from the Internet
1111
Role plays: asking for a date (Mexico and the United States)
111
Students write own rules for "the dating game": create a book
(with art)
3. Chris and Mike: written dialogue
111
Phrasal verbs of dating
111
Role plays: making casual social plans
4. "Late Again": jazz chant
5. What Time Will You Get There?: problem solving task
111
Fill out/discuss grid together
111
Role plays: what you say when you're late or kept waiting
6. Real invitations vs. polite chit-chat: four conversations
111
Identify language
7. "Mississippi Masala": film clips
111
Common language of invitations
1111
Language of invitations: listen/identify
1111
Produce and self-assess functional language
8. "Papa Don't Preach": Madonna song
1111
True/false questions to elicit attitudes
1111
Information gap listening activity
111
Controlled conversation: teenage pregnancy
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
169
9. "Something About the Nature of Midnight": short fiction
11
Reading skills/strategies
1111
Free discussion: unwed motherhood
1111
Writing personal opinion
The following elements are integrated into the above activities:
Functions: Inviting; accepting/refusing invitations
Complaining/apologizing
Agreeing/disagreeing
Culture: Dating customs
Social relationships
Male-female roles
Concepts of time
Social mores
Lexis: Phrasal verbs (social plans + others)
Lexicon of feminism, dating, relationships
Slang/idioms
Grammar: Hypothetical conditional
Modal verbs
Phonology: Reduced speechjschwa
Stress/rhythm/intonation
jgjin final position
m
Look over the material you have developed for your unit. Is it organized
in such a way that there is some flexibility depending on how your students
respond to it? For example, does it follow a lock-step sequence, or can you vary
the sequence? Are there activities that could be extended (and others omitted) if
students needed more time? Is there student choice with respect to the activities
themselves or the sequence of activities?
At the beginning of the chapter I talked about materials development taking
place on a continuum of creativity and responsibility. It is actually possible to be
too creative and let the materials overwhelm the learning purposes they were
designed to achieve. The teacher then loses the students as she or he rushes them
through all the activities. Flexibility is important so that you can provide materials that are engaging and appropriate and also allow your students to use them
productively in the classroom. Your decisions will also be affected by the
resources and constraints of your context on the one hand and your objectives
170 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
for your students on the other. Together they provide the parameters within
which you can exercise your creativity: whatever you develop must be feasible
and appropriate within the context. Your students can also be collaborators
with you in choosing and developing material once they have a sense of what
the course is about and how it is organized.
Suggested Readings
For ideas about developing materials, all of Penny Ur's books are gold mines.
Her 1996 book, A Course in Language Teaching, brings together her ideas
about materials (which in my definition include activities) for teaching the four
skills of speaking, listening, reading, writing, as well as grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.
Alice Omaggio Hadley's book, Teaching Language in Context (1993), provides lots of examples of materials for different levels of proficiency in speaking,
listening, reading, writing, but the layout is poor and not always easy to follow.
Each teaching-related book in the TESOL New Ways series, for example,
New Ways in Teaching Reading (Day 1993), gives an abundance of teacherdeveloped and teacher-tested materials.
For further ideas regarding organizing and sequencing materials, see the suggestions at the end of Chapter 7.
DEVELOPING MATERIALS "
171
9
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK.
n 1984 I had my first conversation with Susan Lanzano, an editor at Oxford
University Press in New York, about the possibility of co-authoring a textbook
series. My initial reaction was "I don't use textbooks in my teaching. Why would
I want to write one?" Her response was that many teachers are required to use
textbooks, a majority of teachers don't have the time or resources to prepare
their own materials, and so textbooks are a necessity. "Wouldn't you like to
write a textbook based on your experience for those teachers?" she asked. Some
conversations later, I agreed to give it a try and started on a long and ultimately
worthwhile journey. The journey resulted in a four book series called East West.
I have since had the opportunity to teach with two of the books. I taught the
intermediate level from cover to cover as part of a prescribed curriculum in a
language institute in Brazil. I used different parts of the beginner's level in an
adult education course here in the town where I live.
Each time I taught with the books, I made copious notes about what I would
change in each of them, if writing a textbook were like a course and could be
modified each time you taught it. In fact, the difference between writing a textbook and teaching from a textbook is that once a textbook is written, it is fixed,
whereas when you teach with it, you can make changes in how you use it. The
changes stem from your beliefs and understandings, your goals and objectives,
your students' needs, and the requirements of your context. In this chapter we
will look at the advantages and disadvantages of textbooks and how to exploit
the advantages and overcome the disadvantages in order to use a textbook as a
tool in course design. We will not look at how to choose a textbook or at specific techniques for teaching with a textbook. However, the investigations may provide insights that will help you evaluate textbooks and the teachers' voices may
provide ideas for techniques.
I
See the list
of readings at
the end of the
chapter for
resources about
techniques.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING A TEXTBOOK
After East West was published, I started going on author's tours to promote the
series. I generally did two back-to-hack presentations, one on a topic of general
interest to teachers, such as how to motivate students, and one that focused
specifically on the books. On these tours I was accompanied by someone from
the publisher who would help set up the room, make introductions and so on.
After one set of presentations on my first tour, the publisher's representative,
who was actually a friend and had been a graduate student of mine, told me that
I seemed very comfortable when giving the first, teaching-focused presentation
but stilted when I gave the commercial presentation. I told him I felt awkward
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK •
173
because I wasn't used to promoting something and, essentially, asking people to
buy it. He said, "Kathleen, you have to realize that for teachers who use a textbook, it is the backbone of their courses. They want to get ideas about how to
use it. Don't treat the book as a product, but as a teaching tool." In subsequent
presentations, I learned to foreground the teaching issues, such as getting students to participate actively, and have the participants use the activities from the
books to explore ways to address the teaching issue. At each presentation I
would say something like, "This text is written for everyone and this text is
written for no one." (The publisher's representatives probably cringed when
they heard this.) We would then explore different ways to adapt the text so that
it would meet the needs of their specific group of students. In retrospect I see
that by exploring ways to adapt the text, I was asking them to become coauthors of the material. I would make notes of their ideas for adaptations so
that I could include them, when appropriate, in future sessions.
In some presentations, the participants would begin by discussing what they
saw as the advantages and disadvantages of using a textbook. We would spend
some of the time analyzing the disadvantages and generating ideas for how to
overcome or minimize them. I have made my own list below:
Some advantages of using a textbook:
1111
It provides a syllabus for the course because the authors have
made decisions about what will be learned and in what order.
Ill
It provides security for the students because they have a kind of
road map of the course: they know what to expect, they know
what is expected of them.
Ill
It provides a set of visuals, activities, readings, etc., and so saves
the teacher time in finding or developing such materials.
Ill
It provides teachers with a basis for assessing students' learning.
Some texts include tests or evaluation tools.
Ill
It may include supporting materials (e.g., teacher's guide,
cassettes, worksheets, video).
Ill
It provides consistency within a program across a given level,
if all teachers use the same textbook. If textbooks follow a
sequence, as within a series, it provides consistency between
levels.
~I"'
~I
Some disadvantages of using a textbook:
174 •
Ill
The content or examples may not be relevant or appropriate
to the group you are teaching.
Ill
The content may not be at the right level.
Ill
There may be too much focus on one or more aspects of
language and not enough focus on others, or it may not
include everything you want to include.
Ill
There may not be the right mix of activities (too much of X,
too little of Y.)
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
1111
The sequence is lockstep.
IIIII
The activities, readings, visuals, etc. may be boring.
1111
The material may go out of date.
1111
The timetable for completing the textbook or parts of it
may be unrealistic.
OJ Think of a course in which you used a textbook (as a teacher or learner)
and were satisfied and one in which you used a textbook and were not satisfied.
What were some of the factors that accounted for the difference?
Based on your experience as a teacher and learner, make a list of the
advantages and a list of the disadvantages of using a textbook.
Discuss your lists with a colleague.
Later investigations will ask you to examine a textbook you use or
are considering using.
n Investigation 9.1, you made lists of the advantages and disadvantages of
using a textbook. What you determined should go in each list depends a lot on
your context and the students you teach, your own experience, beliefs, and
understandings, and the type of textbook you have used. What one teacher considers an advantage in a textbook, another teacher may consider a disadvantage.
For example, in one of the East West books, we wrote a suspense story, one
episode at the end of each unit. I found that some teachers thought it was a wonderful aspect of the book and wanted to know why we hadn't written one for
each of the levels. Other teachers said they simply skipped it. The list of disadvantages I have included above can all be overcome to some extent, if you view
the textbook as a tool or instrument that you can mold and adapt to your particular group of students by changing, supplementing, eliminating, and resequencing the material in it. If you have to do so much work to adapt the textbook that you might as well develop your own materials, then it is probably
worthwhile looking for another textbook.
I
How CAN You UsE A TEXTBOOK AS A COURSE TooL?
To understand how a textbook is an instrument or a tool, we can compare it to
a musical instrument, a piano, for example. The piano provides you with the
means for producing music, but it cannot produce music on its own. The music
is produced only when you play it. Playing well requires practice and familiarity
with the piece. The more skilled you are, the more beautiful the music. Just as a
piano does not play music, a textbook does not teach language. The textbook is
a stimulus or instrument for teaching and learning. Clearly, the quality of the
instrument also affects the quality of the music. However, if it is in tune, even
the most humble piano can produce beautiful music in the hands of a skilled
musician. The musical instrument analogy falls short because it involves only
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
175
one performer, while success in teaching with a textbook depends also on the
students who use it. Perhaps as teachers, we are called on to be not only musicians, but also piano tuners, composers, and conductors.
In working with teachers, I frequently come across the attitude that a textbook is sacred and not to be tampered with. In a previous chapter I said that we
often give too much power to written documents such as our syllabuses or lesson plans, which in turn may prevent us from paying attention to how the students are using them. This is multiplied a hundredfold when it comes to a textbook. Such an attitude is detrimental both to the students and to the teacher
because it assumes that the way teachers teach is uniform, and the way learners
learn is predictable; that there is a certain way to teach a textbook, and that the
results will be the same each time. Teachers' experiences disprove such assumptions repeatedly. The mental landscape of teaching is dotted with cries of "But it
worked so well the last time I taught it."
A more disturbing aspect of such assumptions is the underlying notion that
teaching doesn't involve decision making or skill based on our understandings,
beliefs, and experience, which Michael Apple (1986) has called the "deskilling"
of teachers. This deskilling is evident in the attitude that it is the textbook that
teaches the students, rather than the teacher or the students themselves. One
study of commercially prepared reading materials for elementary school students found that reading instruction was understood as students absorbing what
was in the book rather than as a collaboration among author, teacher, and student. (Shannon 1987, p. 314). To reiterate the analogy with the musical instrument, just as the piano doesn't play the music, the textbook doesn't teach the
language. A good textbook-one that meets students' needs, is at the right level,
has interesting material, and so on-can be a boon to a teacher because it can
free him or her to focus on what the students do with it. However, no textbook
was written for your actual group of students, and so it will need to be adapted
m some way.
There are two facets to understanding how to use a textbook. The first is the
textbook itself: "getting inside it" so you can understand how it is constructed
and why. The second is everything other than the textbook: the context, the students, and you, the teacher. The second facet is important, because when you
evaluate a textbook, you generally use the lenses of your experience and context
to evaluate it, and I think it is important to be aware of those lenses. The first
facet, getting inside the textbook, is important so that you know what you are
adapting or supplementing. The second facet helps you to be clear about what
you are adapting it to.
The first step in using a textbook as a tool-getting inside it and understanding how it is put together and why-is actually a series of steps that includes
three of the elements of designing a course: conceptualizing content, formulating
goals and objectives, and organizing the course. In a sense, you retrace with the
authors how they conceptualized content, what the organizing principle(s) is,
how the text content is sequenced, what the objectives of each unit are, and how
the units are organized. A good place to start is with the table of contents, since
it lays out both what is in the book, how the units are sequenced, and, depending on the text, the content and organization of individual units.
176 °
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
In the following investigations, you will examine the tables of contents of
three textbooks. The investigations will use the following framework as the
basis for analysis.
Figure 9.1:
AFramework for Investigating How a Textbook Is Put Together
How have the authors conceptualized content, i.e., what aspects of
language, learning, and social context are being addressed?
(Refer to the Chart in Figure 4.4 in Chapter 4.)
How is the material organized, i.e., what is the organizing principle(s)?
On what basis are the units sequenced?
What is the content of a unit?
What are the objectives of the unit? In other words, what should the
students know or be able to do by the end of the unit?
How does the unit content help to achieve the objectives?
The first book you will investigate, East West Basics, is one I co-authored
with Alison Rice. We conceptualized content in terms of grammar, topics and
associated vocabulary, culture, communicative functions, pronunciation, speaking, and listening. With respect to the three dimensions of conceptualizing content-language, learning, and social context-outlined in Chapter 4, we focused
primarily on language, although we did address sociocultural and sociolinguistic aspects of language. We did not include elements of learning, such as learning
strategies and interpersonal skills.
The two organizing principles for the book were topics and grammar. We
worked with lists of grammar and topics we felt were appropriate for a beginners'
level. The units are sequenced on the basis of the grammar. We first developed a
grammatical syllabus, since that was the easiest to sequence, and then looked for
topics that would readily incorporate the grammar. For example, present tense of
be is often linked with personal identification, "My name is . .. , I'm . .. , "
The order of the units changed as we developed the material within each unit,
and different elements got moved around within a unit or from unit to unit. The
culture and functions are related to the unit topics. There is a pronunciation syllabus for the book which includes work on the sound and syllable level as well as
the word and sentence level. The speaking and listening activities are a combination of exercises, which focus on specific building blocks of language, and activities, which focus on purposeful communication (Vale, Scarino and McKay 1996.)
See Chapter 8,
page 157, for
definitions of
exercises and
activities.
mElJ Look at the Table of Contents of East West Basics (Figure 9.2a).
1. The authors conceptualized content in terms of: grammar, topics,
pronunciation, culture, communicative functions, speaking and listening. Find examples of the first five aspects in the table of contents.
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
177
Figure 9.2a:
Table of Contents from East West Basics
Contents
Unit
Functions
Topics
Grammar
Present tense of be
Yes/no questions
Pronunciation
Put II Together
Activity
Game: Are you ... ?
Page 88
1
Page3
Names
Occupations
Culture Capsule:
Titles: Mr., Mrs.,
Miss, and Ms.
Greetings
Introductions
Apologies
2
Names
Phone numbers
Places
Culture Capsule:
Asking for spelling Present tense of be
Sentence intonation
Making a phone caU Questions with what
Personal pronouns
At a hotel
Class phone book
Page90
Final-s
Present tense of be
Talking about
family
Questions with who,
Asking about age
how old
Giving compliments Possessives
Game: Number
Page9
Word stress
Last names in
English
3
Page 15
Family
Numbers to 100
More occupations
Culture Capsule:
The American
family today
4
Page21
Questions with
Cities, countries,
nationalities, and
Asking where
languages
Favorite plac~s
Culture Capsule:
American food is
international food.
Talking about
favorite places
Simple present tense Word stress
Questions with do
Questions with how
Sports
Days of the week
Talking about likes
and dislikes
Talking about the
past
Giving an opinion
business
Telling time
Culture Capsule:
Opening and
closing times
5
Page27
6
Page33
Leisure activities
Culture Capsule:
Sports in the US
7
Page39
178 •
Vowel sounds
Asking for the time
Asking about
locations
Expressing needs
Prepositions of
location
Stores and places of
someone lives
where
Amapofyour
neighborhood
Page94
Class survey:
Good health
Page96
often, where
Expressions of
frequency
Past tense of be
Past time
Reduced speech
Sports and games
Page98
expressions
Questions with how
REVIEW UNIT
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
Olympics
Page92
Pages 99-100
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Unit
8
Page45
Topics
Functions
Grammar
Pronunciation
Questions with does
Asking about others Simple present
(reduced forms)
tense
Talking about
Questions with does
leisure activities
Culture Capsule:
Conversation topics Talking about likes
and dislikes
Leisure activities
Music
9
Vacations
Page 51
Weather
Seasons
Months of the year
Talking about
vacations
Talking about the
Put II Together
Activity
Class survey:
Favorites
Page 102
Simple past tense
Questions with did
Questions with how
Past tense endings
November in
New York
Page 104
Present continuous
Vowels ending in -r
Let's have a party!
Page 106
The rhythm of
English sentences
Designing a
catalogue page
Page 108
weather
Culture Capsule:
Summer vacation
10
Page 57
11
Page63
Parties, invitations
Dates, birthdays
Food
Describing present
tense
actions
Culture Capsule:
Parties
Asking about dates,
birthdays
Talking about food
Count and
Colors
Clothing
Shopping
Gifts
Describing clothing Questions with
Making suggestions which, how much
Object pronouns it
Shopping for gifts
and·them
noncount nouns
Cui lure Capsule:
Giving gifts
12
Page 69
13
Page75
Future plans
Invitations
Ordering food in a
restaurant
Culture Capsule:
Free time
Talking about
future plans
Inviting someone
Ordering food in a
restaurant
Future tense with be Unstressed syllables Make your own
menu
going to
Page 110
future time
Rooms in a house
Neighborhoods
More place names
Describing one's
home
Describing one's
neighborhood
Informal greetings
There is/are
Compound
sentences with
and, but
More prepositions
oflocation
Culture Capsule:
Where people live
14
Page81
REVIEW UNIT
expression
would like
Sentence and
question
intonation
Vacation in Alaska
Page 112
Pages 113-114
Word List
Page 115
K. Graves and A. Rice, Oxford University Press, 1994
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK •
179
Where do you think sociocultural and sociolinguistic aspects of
language learning are addressed?
2. The organizing principles were topics and grammar. The rest of the
areas clustered around those. Look for examples of how the areas
clustered around topics and grammar.
3. If you were teaching beginning students, are there topics you would
add? drop?
4. The units were sequenced on the basis of grammar. Do you feel that
the sequence is logical? For example, do you feel that the present tense
of be should be taught before the present tense of other verbs?
5. What do you like about the content of the book? Why? What don't
you like? Why not?
The second book is Modern Impressions by Marie Hutchison Weidauer
(1994). It is a writing text for advanced level students.
lDml! Study the table of contents of Modern Impressions (Figure 9 .2b).
1. How did the author conceptualize content? In other words, what
aspects of language, learning, and social context are included in the
content of the book? Make a list with examples.
2. How is the content organized? On what basis do you think the units
are sequenced?
3. If you could interview the author about how she put the book together,
what questions would you ask her?
4. Read the preface to Modern Impressions (Figure 9.2c). Does it answer
some of your questions?
The next investigation asks you to look at the table of contents of your own
textbook or textbook you are considering using.
jj
II
~!
l!1f1l Look at the table of contents of the textbook you use or are considering using.
1. How has the author conceptualized content-i.e., what aspects
of language, learning, and social context are being addressed?
(See Figure 4.4 and Investigation 4.3a in Chapter 4.)
2. What can you say about how the material is organized? What is
the organizing principle (s)? On what basis are the units sequenced?
180 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
....
...==
ciQ"
MAJOR ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS
42
READINGS
UThe Covert Curriculum," Alvin Toffler
44
Vocabulary Enrichment
43
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
44
45
"Education Will Open Doors ..
Mark Mathabane
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"Private Education with a Conscience,"
JeanMerl
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
47
45
49
50
56
55
57
60
WRITING SKILLS
1 and
Your Learning Style
Writing Goals
1
INTRODUCTION
YOUR LEARNING STYLE
YOUR WRITING GOALS
2
>tl
The Rudiments of
Organizing
an Essay
3
Writing
Persuasive Essays
31
INTRODUCTION: SAMPLE
PERSUASIVE ESSAY
32
DEFINING PERSUASION
33
WRITING PERSUASIVE
THESIS STATEMENTS
34
2
INTRODUCTION
12
YOUR AUDIENCE
12
UNITY AND THE PARAGRAPH
13
PUNCTUATION NOTE
SUPPORTING
YOUR OPINION
37
ASSESSMENT
CONCLUDING
38
and
4 Education
Empowerment
Punctuating with Simple Transitions
20
FOCUS QUESTIONS
42
SAMPLE ESSAYS
24
TOPIC ORIENTATION
42
l;l:j
0
0
...."'..
=
....
62
64
Reflecting on Draft One
Peer Response to Draft Two
Reflecting on Draft Three
Writer's Notebook
66
69
54
68
71
72
STUDENT WRITING
z
:>>-1
m
:X:
...,
52
60
EDITING STRATEGY
35
INTRODUCTIONS AND
CONCLUSIONS
C)
Verb Tenses with Generalizations and
Experiential Examples
The "Perfect" Verbs
Special Conditions of Subject-Verb
Agreement
Reducing Adverb Clauses
"One line at a T1me
THESIS STATEMENTS
...,
19
49
50
59
SUMMARIZING THE
OPPOSING OPINION
:>-
"0
44
Chronological and Sequential
Description
Simple Transitions
Using and Ordering Examples
LANGUAGE SKILLS
8
11
Brainstorming
Practice Peer Response
For Further Discussion
41
66
70
5
Fathers: Are They
Central or
Peripheral?
"'~
N:l
!':
75
INTRODUCTION
76
TOPIC ORIENTATION
76
MAJOR ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS
76
READINGS
"My Father Worked Late,n jim Daniels
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"Helen, Mr. Mellow, and the Briefcase,"
Kyle D. Pruen
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"Fatherhood: The Second Round~
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"Life Without Father,~ Nina}. Easton
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
Simulation Activity
Short Writing
so
77
81
83
85
83
87
90
91
91
92
92
97
95
98
99
99
101
WRITING SKILLS
Freewriting
Writing Comparisons
Appealing to Experts by Quoting and
Paraphrasing
xvi
73
104
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Pronoun Reference: "they, he, she, it"
92
Pronoun Reference: "this~ vs. "it"
93
Generalizing with Singular and
Plural Nouns and "the~
102
Expressing Imaginary Meanings
105
Packing Information into
Noun Clauses
108
Reading Aloud
-=
=
el'll
=
=
=
::;>
=
=
!!I:
=
==
-=
=
<=
Cl)
=
=·=
-=
-=
=
Cl)
Cl)
GP:I
82
88
EDITING STRATEGY
VOCABULARY CHECKLIST
~
=-
110
....
=
~
•
ti
m
(/)
0
~
z
0
I:""
>
z
0
c:::
0
m
Quotation Marks
Reflecting on Draft One
Peer Response to Draft Two
Reflecting on Draft Three
Writer's Notebook
(/)
STUDENT WRITING
(/)
Practice Peer Response
For Further Discussion
m
>-
Passive and Active Verbs
Sentence Fragments and
Run-on Sentences
A Special Use of "the~
113
ASSESSMENT
(l
0
c:::
;:o
LANGUAGE SKILLS
PUNCTUATION NOTE
>
VOCABULARY CHECKLIST
94
112
116
117
Not to Die Alone.~
Pamela Warrick
Vocabulary Enrichment
Baborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"A Linle Push from Big Brother,"
Bob Pool
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
142
146
EDITING STRATEGY
Nemesis Errors
147
PUNCTUATION NOTE
111
113
Punctuating Clauses
151
117
()
Reflecting on Draft Three
Writer's Notebook
c:::
Repetition of Key Words
Recognizing the "Knee-Jerk~ Response
Cause/Effect Development
Coincidence
Causal Chains
Organizing Causal Factors
137
150
154
154
~
t:l
m
'"r1
0
;:o
....,
6
STUDENT WRITING
Poverty: Could You
121
Be Its Victim?
m
n
:r::
INTRODUCTION
122
TOPIC ORIENTATION
122
MAJOR ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS
122
;:o
READINGS
>
m
(/)
"The Hardworking Poor,H
Bradley R. Schiller
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"Who Are the Poor?"
Richard H. Ropers
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"A Killer in the Deep South"
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
124
123
124
125
127
126
129
130
139
138
142
142
WRITING SKILLS
Using Statistics
0.-ganizing by Classifyhlg
Phrasal Transitions
Sample Footnotes
124
131
133
156
Practice Peer Response
For Further Discussion
VOCABULARY CHECKLIST
7
Challenges and
Choices
Expressing Intense Causes and Their
Effects (so/such (a] ... [that})
Correlative Conjunctions
Parallelism
ISS
159
INTRODUCTION
160
160
MAJOR ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS
160
READINGS
"Some Conclusions about
Successful Coping Responses,~
Chris L. Kleinke
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
"Breaking the Bonds of Hate,n
Vrrak Khiev
Vocabulary Enrichment
Elaborating on the Reading
Short Writing
162
161
163
163
165
163
166
169
xvii
182
181
183
183
167
173
174
175
176
176
LANGUAGE SKILLS
148
151
TOPIC ORIENTATION
170
169
171
174
WRITING SKILLS
ASSESSMENT
Reflc=cting on Draft One
Peer Response to Draft Two
EDITING STRATEGY
~choosing
134
:xviii
178
184
186
The
~oominoH
Effect
190
PUNCTUATION NOTE
Commas with Coordinators
193
ASSESSMENT
Reflecting on Drnft One
Peer Response to Draft Two
Reflecting on Draft Three
Writer's Notebook
180
192
196
196
STUDENT WRITING
Practice Peer Response
For Further Discussion
VOCABULARY CHECKLIST
191
193
197
Figure 9.2c:
Preface from Modern Impressions
odern Impressions: Writing in Out· Times has been designed to guide
the low-advanced ESL student into developing his capacity as an English writer as
he comes to understand his beliefs about several institutions in society. While the
social issues the student works with are presented in the U.S. context, they are applicable to other societies as well, as chapter exercises based on multicultural information and student writings attest to.
just as any writer's purpose is to communicate a message, the students' purpose in the text is to find a message and succeed in communicating it. The chapters are very much content-driven; the more students learn about the topic and
learn to recognize their own opinions on the topic, the more they have to say in
their writing and the more they will care about saying it In a way which accurately reflects their opinions. As writing is a recursive process of discovery, the text
gives students opportunities to discover knowledge and feelings about their topics
and to craft, and re-craft, their writings. The text brings all of the students language
skills together by encouraging them to receive Input from reading and interactions
with native speakers and each other while encouraging output not only through
writing but speaking as well.
Modet'tl Impressions has seven chapters, arranged in such a way that the
major topic chapters (4, 5, 6, and 7) can be done in any order.
CHAPTERS I, 2, AND 3
• Chapter 1 is designed as a "first day" group of activities to increase students'
awareness of their preferred learning styles and their writing goals and acquaint
them with other possibilities for both.
• Chapter 2 acquaints students with the basics of organizing essays. It may be
done all at once or in conjunction with any of the major chapters.
• Chapter 3 gives students information about writing persuasive essays. In the
major chapters, students are repeatedly given choices of essay topics reflecting
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
183
xii
PREFACE
narrative, descriptive, analytic or persuasive modes of writing. Chapter 3 may be
done early by students who want to launch into persuasive writing early; it may
be done by the class as a whole when the teacher desires.
CHAPTERS 4, 5, 6, AND 7
There are four major topic chapters in Modern Impressions. They are conceived to constitute 12-15 hours of instruction spread out over approximately
three weeks. Each chapter contains a choice of major essay assignments, several
readings on the topic, writing skills instruction, language skills instruction, an editing strategy, a punctuation note, assessment of writing, sample student writings,
and a writer's notebook. The skills are spiraled among each other in each chapter
so that classes may work in the chapters in order of presentation of the materials.
The chapters are designed in such a way that they support the revision process as
students work their way through three drafts of a major essay and are referred
back to these drafts to make changes using what they have just learned.
The Major Essay Assignments
Each major chapter offers students several choices for a major essay assignment (750-1000 words): a descriptive and/or narrative assignment, an analytic assignment, or a persuasive assignment. Students are encouraged to challenge
themselves by choosing a topic which is a little bit harder than they are used to.
Students continually work on drafts of this essay during the chapter and are repeatedly urged to revise or edit their drafts when they have learned a new writing
or language skill.
The Readings
Each major chapter has one main topic centered on three or four readings.
Each chapter begins with a short "Introductory Reading;' which serves to orient
students toward the topic, and continues with "In-Depth Readings" and "Further
Readings" which are longer, provide many more details about the topic, and raise
some of the most important issues associated with the topic. Teachers who prefer
to assign less reading can choose from the readings or have students choose the
reading(s) they prefer to read. Teachers who prefer to include more reading can
send students to the library to find additional articles, an activity which has been
found to be very successful in pilot use of this text. Each reading has several activities to support it and develop students' knowledge of the topic:
• Vocabulary Enrichment exercises help students learn new vocabulary, and a
Vocabulary Checklist at the end of each chapter lets students record words they
wish to remember for future use.
• Elaborating on the Reading helps students understand the points raised in the
readings and come to grips with their own opinions on the topic. The exercises
include question-answer, roleplay, simulation, and interviews in the community
and may be written or oral.
• Short Writings of 150 to 200 words are designed to further students' knowledge
of the topic and develop their writing skills. Short wlitings are often preceded by
information about writing style, organization, or the writer's process. They may
be assigned for homework or under time pressure in class as "quick writings."
184 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
xiii
The Writing Skills
Each major chapter also contains information and exercises to improve students' writing skills. These skills acquaint students with the process of writing,
clear organization of writing, and techniques for clarifying or strengthening their
writing. The organizational techniques that are introduced coordinate with the analytic major essay assignment for each chapter.
PREFACE
The Language Skills
Two types of language skills are developed in Modem. Impressions: the skill
to control or correct errors and the skill to write syntactically complex sentences.
Most exercises are in context, consisting of paragraph-level discourse, in some
cases essay level, for students to edit or manipulate in some way. Care has been
taken to design exercises which approximate the actual process of revising or editing whenever possible. Students are continually referred back to their drafts to
make changes based on the new language skills they have learned.
The Editing Strategy
Each major chapter contains one editing strategy which is independent of
any particular topic or grammar point, one which they can use again and again in
their writing in the future.
The Punctuation Note
Major chapters also contain a brief punctuation note coordinated with a
teaching point raised with one of the language or writing skills.
The Assessment
In order for students to revise their drafts, the text promotes two types of assessment. Students assess their own work through Reflections on drafts one and
three. Students assess each other's work in the Peer Responses for draft two. Both
Reflections and Peer Responses are guided by a set of five questions. By using the
Reflection and Peer Response techniques, students become more empowered
writers because they improve their ability to read critically and depend more on
themselves as they revise.
It is expected that a third mode of assessment includes teacher assessment.
One successful technique for teacher assessment of ESL essays at the University of
California, Irvine, has been to provide reactions to content and organization on the
first draft, delay marking language problems until the second draft, and respond to
the overall success of the essay and its revisions on the third draft. This gives students time to come to grips with the topic and their message while providing the
guidance on language skill that they need at a time when it will not interfere with
their writing processes.
The final mode of assessment is the Writer's Notebook, which gives students
an opportunity to evaluate more broadly what they have been learning about writing and what they would still like to accomplish during this course. It is a type of
"journal" of their writing development.
The Student Writings
Student writings are generally used twice per chapter: once as the basis for
practicing the Peer Response of draft two, and once for further discussion or workshopping as students work on draft three. These writings have been chosen for
the most part because they are good and because they provide interesting points
of view on the chapter's topic, but they are not perfect. In addition, they have
been lightly edited to remove grammatical errors.
Marie Hutchison Weidauer, 1994
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK •
185
Once you are familiar with the overall content and organization of the book,
it is helpful to become familiar with one of the units-what the content of the
unit is, what the objectives are, and how the content helps to achieve the objectives. There are several ways to do this. One is to make a mind-map or diagram
of the unit. Another is to make lists of content, objectives, and the relationships
between them. Another is to make a grid. In the next investigation you will analyze a unit from East West Basics and then your own textbook.
D!l Below you will find a mind map and a grid that lay out the content of
Unit 1 of East West Basics. Each is an attempt to represent and link the content
and the objectives. Study the unit in Appendix 9-3 on pages 277-280 and then
study the mind map in Figure 9.3a and grid in Figure 9.3b.
1. Do they help you see how the unit is put together?
2. Which do you find most helpful? Why? Which do you find least
helpful? Why?
mEJll Choose a unit from your textbook. Draw up a mind map, grid, or list
that shows:
1111
the content of the unit
1111
the objectives of the unit
1111
the way in which the content helps to achieve the objectives.
Figure 9.3a: Mind Map East West Basics Unit One
put it together
activity
t
186 °
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 9.3b:
Grid for East West Basics Unit One
Topics
Names
Occupations
Objectives: Students will learn
the occupations in the unit.
Students will be able to give
their names.
Opening dialogue
Speaking activities 1, 2, 3
Listening 1, 2, 3
Culture capsule
Opening dialogue
Speaking activity set 4
Listening 2, 3
Put It Together activity
Functions
Introductions
Objectives: Students will be
able to introduce themselves
to another person.
(Speaking activity set 1;
Listening 1, 2)
Students will be able to greet
each other informally.
Greetings with names
(Speaking activity set 2)
Students will be able to
apologize using "I'm sorry."
Apologies (Activity set 3)
Grammar
Present tense of be
Present tense of be
Objectives: students will be
able to use the present tense
of be for 1st, 2nd, 3rd person.
(all activities)
(all activities)
Students will be able to ask
yesjno questions using the
present tense of be for 1st,
2nd, 3rd person.
Yesjno questions
(Activity set 3)
Yesjno questions
(Put It Together activity)
.
.I
,j
Culture
Culture Capsule
Students will learn that titles
like Ms. go before last names
only.
Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms.,
and when to use them.
Students will learn different
titles for women: Ms., Miss,
Mrs., and when to use them.
Pronunciation
Word stress
Students will become aware
that multisyllable words in
English have major stress on
one syllable.
(in names of
occupations)
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
187
O
nce you have "gotten inside" of the textbook and understood how its content is organized, you can consider how you want to aqapt it. You have a
range of choices about how much to adapt a textbook. You may stick to the
syllabus and make adaptations at the activity level. You may stick to the syllabus and adapt at the unit level by doing the activities in a different order than
in the book, changing, eliminating, or adding activities. You may adapt it at the
syllabus level by adding new areas to the syllabus or eliminating parts of it. The
adaptations are cumulative: adapting at the unit level involves adaptation at
the activity level; adapting at the syllabus level involves adaptation at the unit
level. Such choices depend on your experience with the textbook: it is easier to
adapt a textbook once you have taught it. Those choices also depend on your
context and your students' needs, which you will explore below.
Figure 9.4:
ARange of Choices with Respect to Adapting a Textbook
The activity level: change, supplement, eliminate activities.
The unit level: change the order of activities and adapt existing activities.
The book/syllabus level: change, add to or eliminate parts of the syllabus.
ADAPTING AT THE ACTIVITY LEVEL
One teacher at a language institute (ACBEU) in Riberao Preto, Brazil, Simone
Machado Camillo, describes the way she makes adaptations at the activity
level and why.
Simone
Machado Camillo
I have been developing activities to provide my students the opportunity to learn in a more pleasurable way. The activities are based
on two books we use at ACBEU, Touchdown and Intercom 2000,
although they could be adapted and used in any class since most
of them are focused on grammar. My main concern was to develop
activities that would focus on learners' needs, give some control to
the students, allow for students' creativity and innovation to
enhance students' sense of competence and self-worth.
One of the best points of these activities is the suitability for the
tight schedules we face at ACBEU, and I believe this is a situation
many other teaching professionals face. I am very glad to see the
activities fitting well in our schedule and making students more
interested and active in the learning process. My students' feedback
on questionnaires and in their journals has been a motivating strength
that makes me even more enthusiastic and willing to continue the
process of developing more activities.
Simone classifies the activities she has developed into four types: warm-up
activities, presentation activities, practice activities, and consolidation activities.
This classification will be familiar to teachers who have learned about a three
stage lesson planning model such as presentation, practice, and production
(Matthews et al. 1985). She describes the activity types as follows:
188 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
A warm-up activity is usually based on previous topics. It can
be considered a review activity. It is usually given in the beginning
of a class. It can be a creative way to start a class or break the
routine of a class.
A presentation is based on new topics. It is given with the books
closed. It is a preparation for the book activities.
A practice activity should be given after the presentation. It can
be developed before bookwork, during it, or after it. It is a more
meaningful opportunity for the student where he can practice the
taught material in a more realistic and meaningful context.
A consolidation activity is developed after the practice. It reinforces
the topics that were already taught. It can be used as a review activity as well. It is usually a game. Students have fun while they review
what was taught previously.
Simone developed a system for enhancing what was in the textbook and
adapting it for her students so that they could be more active learners. She chose
to weave her activities into the existing framework of the books based on contextual factors which included the course schedule as well as student expectations. She found that the younger students enjoyed the activities and wrote comments in their journals such as, "I like to play in our English classes." "I loved
the 'give-receive' activity." "Have you noticed, Simone, I didn't sleep today ... "
With some of the older students (young adults) there was some resistance to
departing from the book. She writes:
Developing activities for young adults was a great challenge.
Breaking their routine of learning was a very hard task. In the
beginning, some students refused to stand up, mime, take a more
active role in their learning process. They felt strange and didn't like
to be on the spot. Students had to feel at ease so that they would get
into the mood of the activities. Most students would rather have the
"traditional" class. During one of my classes I told my students we
were going to play Bingo. One student said, "Don't you have a
more useful activity to do?" I thought it was a harsh comment, but I
answered his question calmly and he seemed to be convinced by my
arguments. I told him it was a very useful activity and my purpose
was to reinforce a topic that had already been taught. It seemed that
showing my purpose was a key to my student's understanding of the
importance of fun in learning.
Here are two examples of Simone's adaptations of unit 13 of Intercom 2000
Book 1 (Chamot et al. 1991). The unit begins with a dialogue between Toshio
Ito, a flight attendant from Japan, and the Logans, friends he is visiting in the
United States. The introduction to the dialogue includes contrasts between the
present and past such as "Last week he was in Hong Kong and Tokyo." "This
week he is in Winfield at the home of his friends, the Logans." On the next page
there is a grammar explanation that shows the past of the verb be. Simone's first
activity is a presentation activity. It is done before the students open their books.
See Appendix 9-1,
page 275,
for the original
pages of the unit.
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
189
Time Trip (presentation activity)
Time: About 15 minutes.
Grammar: Past tense of verb to be (waslwere)
1. Divide the board into two columns (presentjpast).
2. Write sentences about yourself and your family in the columns.
Past
Present
a teacher at ACBEU.
a student in 1976.
I _ _ 7 years old in 1977.
1_ _ 25 years old.
My parents _ _ single in 1968.
My parents _ _ married.
In 1985, my sister _ _ a student at UNAERP. My sister _ _ a lawyer.
3. Ask students to try to complete the blanks using the verb to be in the
past and present. If they can't, help them or provide the answers.
4. Pair students up and ask them to write sentences about themselves
and their parents in the present and in the past to be shared with their
partners.
5. Students ask questions about their classmates.
A: I was ajan _ _ _ in _ _ . What about you?
B: I was ajan _ __
B: My parents were _ _ _ in _ _ . What about yours?
A: _ _ __
A: My sister was _ _ _ in _ _ . What about yours?
.•
B: _ _ __
Simone's second activity is done in place of what is in the book. The exercise
in the book shows a chart with examples like the following:
The LogansiNew York Cityllast month.
A: The Logans were in New York City last month.
B: That's right.
Simone comments: I didn't use the exercise in the book because it was not
meaningful enough. I have adapted it using more realistic examples.
Right or Wrong (practice activity)
Time: about 20 minutes
Grammar: past tense of verb to be (waslwere)
1. Give students slips of paper with some cues that will help them to
make some sentences using waslwere.
e.g., Brazil I discovered I in 1984.
~;
~;
190 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
FHC I in Brasilia I last week. (FHC are the initials of the president of
Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso)
2. Divide the class into two groups.
3. A student from group A reads his or her sentence, for example, "Brazil
was discovered in 1984."
4. A student from group B will accept it saying "That's right." or will
correct the statement saying, for example, "No, it wasn't. It was . .. "
or "No, they weren't. They were . .. "
5. Continue the practice with the whole class.
Simone's belief in the importance of student participation as a vehicle for
learning motivated her to adapt the textbook to provide more opportunities for
interaction. She personalized the activities so that they would be relevant to the
students. Each activity challenged the students to think about the meaning of a
given statement or response. The activities were structured so that students
would interact with each other. In some cases, she bypassed the book activity
entirely. Her understanding of what her students needed in order to be able to
participate in these activities-feeling at ease, understanding why they were being
asked to work in a different way-was a key factor in the success of her course.
Ill] Choose an activity or activity sequence from a textbook you have used
or are considering using. Do the investigation with a particular group of students in mind.
Choose and answer one of the questions below that is appropriate for the
activity or sequence of activities you have chosen.
1. How would you adapt it to make it more challenging (so that students
have to think about what they are doing or have to solve a problem)?
2. How would you adapt the activity or sequence to make it more personal
(to draw on the students' experience)?
3. How would you adapt it so that the students never opened the book
to do it?
4. How would you adapt it so that it integrated the four skills of speaking,
reading, listening, and writing?
5. How would you adapt it so that the students could do it with you out
of the room?
ADAPTING AT THE UNIT LEVEL
In Investigation 9.4 you looked at ways to adapt individual activities or a
sequence of activities in a textbook. The next level of adaptation is at the unit
level. Below we will hear about Michael Gatto's experience adapting a textbook unit. Michael taught in El Salvador at a language institute. After he
returned from El Salvador, he took a course design seminar with me in which
See
Michael Gatto's
description of his
context on page
14, Chapter 2.
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK •
191
he chose to redesign the course he taught in El Salvador, which required a textbook. During the seminar he raised the issue that most teachers don't have a
semester to write goals and objectives, draw mind maps, develop materials, and
so on. In El Salvador, as a newly arrived teacher, he was given the textbook the
night before he was to begin teaching it. He writes about how he ultimately
redesigned the course.
Michael Gatto
Hey! In real life you were only given one day to "design" this
course-so how would you do it if you really had to? Of course, it
made perfect sense. Here I had been losing sleep over my half-baked
goals and objectives when what I had to do was realize that my
style dictates that I have to be knee deep into the project before the
goals, objectives, and all the other parts of a course are visible.
Luckily that week Kathleen Graves had given us a demonstration
on how we can resequence the textbooks we use to fit the courses
we're teaching. She just photocopied a unit from an English textbook, took out a pair of scissors, chopped away, and then had us
resequence the unit and then give our rationale for resequencing
it that way. I was stunned because I had always viewed these texts
as being set in stone-unmovable. Here we've been talking all year
about developing a teaching "tool box" and the most useful one
I found was a pair of scissors!
I put my mind maps away and took out East West Basics, the
textbook that the binational center required its teachers to use,
and photocopied the first unit. At first it was with great reservation
that I started making a jigsaw puzzle out of it because it just so
happened that this book was written by Kathleen Graves, the
person who would be evaluating the results. Well, I got over that
uneasiness quickly because it was too much fun cutting, resequencing, pasting, repasting, writing, and rewriting that evening. About
four hours later I had the first week of my course designed and
well thought out. The goals and objectives were clearer than they
had ever been. What was even more important was that for the
first time since I started teaching, my beliefs about learning, teaching, and language acquisition were clearly defined in the way I
rationalized why I sequenced various aspects of the course the way
I did. It was like looking in a mirror and seeing the reflection of a
true professional.
Here I had spent most of my teaching career angry every time the
institute I was working for handed me a new book and said, "Here,
teach this." Finally, I had found a way to satisfy the students' needs,
the institute's needs, and my needs as a teacher. The fact that this
realization only took four hours after weeks of frustration made me
realize the importance of keeping one's head out of the clouds when
designing a course.
The following pages are copies from the original sequencing activity
that I did that night. I would like to point out that my own sequencing of the unit is subject to change. After all, if it isn't working for
the students, then it isn't working for anybody.
192
°
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The sequence and Michael's rationale follow. The unit introductory material
and unit as they appear in the textbook are in Appendix 9-2, page 276 and
Appendix 9-3, pages 277-280.
Michael Gatto
BCC Course 8:00 am - 9:40 am M-F
22 Students
East West Basics Units 1-3
Unit One
Topics: Names, Occupations, Titles (Mr., Mrs., Miss, and Ms.)
Functions: Greetings, Introductions, Apologies
Grammar: Present tense of be, Yesjno questions
Pronunciation: Word stress
Monday:
1. Speaking Exercise 1:
Why did I choose to put this one first? One of my main concerns in
starting a class is building community. I think that most would agree
that having students know each other's name is a good start. This will
be reinforced later on with the help of other activities.
2. Speaking Exercise 2: Greeting someone
I think this is a good follow up to the first speaking exercise. Even though
this is a beginners' course, I believe that many already know these introductions and greetings. I want them to feel comfortable with the very
first exercise.
3. Classroom Language ------------------------------------------------1 chose
to do this for the second part of the class because it contains a
lot of important vocabulary that the students will be hearing me say every
day. What I did here was choose the imperatives from the book's list
(listen, write, read, openjclose your book) and add four of my own that I
know I'll use a lot (stand up, rotate, sit down, stop). Instead of showing
the students the words in the book right away, I chose to teach them a Ia
TPR. I also wanted to do this activity because it is fun and will continue
to help the students build community.
4. Students Dialogue Journal explanation
This is where I break down and recruit a Spanish speaker who also understands English to come and help me. This is what I want my students to
know about the SDJ:
1. They need to buy a small notebook.
2. They are to turn the journals in to me twice a week
(Group A: MonjWed, Group B: TuesjThurs).
3. They can write about anything they want. Some of the topics
they might choose are: family, school, work, their feelings about
the class.
TPR refers to
Total Physical
Response, in
which students
watch the teacher
demonstrate an
action and then
respond to
commands from
the teacher to
do the action
(Asher 1982).
4. They should try to write everything in English, only using Spanish
when all else fails.
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
193
5. The journals can be anything from one sentence to 1000 pagesit's up to them.
6. I'm not going to correct their errors. Instead I'm simply going to
write them back. They should think of this as a "pen pal" exercise.
7. This will count as part of their homework grade. All they have to do
is turn it in on time twice a week, and they will have an automatic
perfect score.
Tuesday
1. Review speaking exercises 1-2.
1 think it's always a good idea to review. Again, I believe that students are
more comfortable starting a class with something they have already been
exposed to. I will probably have them go around the class and introduce
themselves to as many people as they can in 5 minutes. The next five
minutes can be spent on Exercise 2, where they have to go back to the
same people and greet them.
Review Classroom language TPR
!)!!!~~~=~~~
___
Again, a quick review -could be student-led.
2. Useful expressions
For the first part of this exercise, I have only chosen three expressions for
the students to work on (How do you say_ in English? How do you spell
_? and How do you say this word?). I did this because they are somewhat related and probably the most useful for students at the beginning
level. After looking at this and reflecting on how poorly it was presented to
the class I taught during my internship, I decided to turn this into an activity, which I consciously made as communicative as possible. For the first
activity the students would work in pairs. Student A receives a sheet of
paper of ten pictures with its word after every other one (only five words).
Student B receives the same except that he has the words that student
A doesn't. Here they have to say things like, "How do you say 'gato' in
English?" "How do you spell cat?" and then write them down. I hope to
make it clear to them that the expressions are the main focus of this
activity, not the vocabulary.
Briefly cover expressions 4 and 5 ... maybe as a group with me talking
too fast or mumbling.
3. Poster making session
See Stevick
(1998) for
information
about Lozanov.
194
° DESIGNING
Here the students will make mini-posters for the classroom walls with the
imperatives we learned with the TPR Classroom Language and the Useful
Expressions. This helps to build community since they are expected to
complete these in small groups. I also believe it helps the students feel
more invested in the class by helping to decorate it. I like Lozanov's idea
of having a lot of peripheral materials, so why not have it made by the students? It also gives them practice reading and writing.
LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Wednesday
1. Speaking exercise 3: Identifying someone
-------------------------------!
I think that this works .out well in the sequencing of this course because
it allows students to build on the English skills they have acquired this
week, especially those dealing with introductions. Here the students get
the chance to try to remember everybody's name. The class activity
should be a lot of fun!
2. Conversation --------------------------------------It seems logical for me to put this here since I want it to serve as a
support to what the students have been working on up to this point, and
the dialogues cover it all. The presentation would include using Natural
Approach techniques and playing the tape. For practice I would have
the students do the dialogues in pairs and then move into groups of four
where two students are facing each other with their books closed. The
other two will be behind them and will feed them the dialogue.
3. Cocktail Party
This is a suggested additional activity which I think works well here
because students can have fun taking another identity (of a famous
person) and use the language they've been learning.
4. Jobs: Speaking Exercise 4 and pronunciation: word stress ---------------1
(do the group work activity from Exercise 2 after word stress.)
Combine these related exercises so that students become aware
of word stress.
Thursday
1. Listening Exercises
---------------------------·-------------·-·---------1
Students will listen and figure out the answers in teams.
Jg. ···-~··'-·"'ccco;;;;
·----------------------------~~~~=~~~~l
2. Culture Capsule
Presentation: I will use what is in the book as the presentation.
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
195
Practice:
1. Bring in many pictures of people (adults, men and women) including
well-known celebrities-Salvadoran, Latin American. Have the
students categorize them according to Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms.
2. Have students form Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms. clubs. Make name tags
using only family names. Go back to Speaking Exercise 3 ("Excuse
me, are you Mr. Gonzalez?").
3. Put It Together
Follow the activity as is.
4. Assign Workbook Unit 1, due tomorrow.
It will be covered in Review Station 1.
Friday
1. Review Stations
1. Workbook
2. Useful expressions
3. Classroom language (TPR)
4. Culture Capsule
5. Speaking Exercises 1-4
2. Poster making session
,·
There will be three groups. Each one will make a poster titled "What we've
learned this week." These will be put on the walls and serve as peripheral
materials for the rest of the course.
3. Explain Monday's quiz
lm!JI
What do you like about the way Michael has outlined his first week?
Why? What would you do differently? Why?
What can you infer about Michael's beliefs and understandings or
what he feels is important with respect to language, learning, and
social context?
What information will Michael be able to learn about his students' needs
during the week?
The next investigation looks at the unit as a whole and how to adapt a textbook at the unit level. It is designed to demonstrate both how the sequence within a textbook unit can become flexible, and how your beliefs and understandings about how people learn affect decisions about sequencing.
I?D
The material for this investigation is a unit from New Interchange 3,
which is intended for the high intermediate level. The material is in Appendix
9-4 on pages 281-285. It is in reduced form and in an order different from
the original.
196 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
1. Photocopy the pages and cut up the activities. Work with a partner and
sequence the activities in a way that makes sense to you. As you work,
discuss the reasoning behind your choices.
2. Show your sequence to another pair and explain why you sequenced
it the way you did. Discuss the differences you see between the two
sequences.
I have done this investigation in different contexts with different groups of
teachers. The unit has twelve different activities which focus on speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as well as vocabulary and grammar. Every time I have
done this (with up to ten small groups) there have never been two identical
sequences, and never one that matches the original. In each case, the teachers
have good reasons for sequencing the activities the way they do. The reasons
have to do with their views of what language learners need to know and be able
to do in order to practice and master different aspects of language, views of how
the four skills interact and should be learned, and views of how activities build
on each other.
ADAPTING AT THE SYLLABUS LEVEL
Thus far, we have heard two teachers, Simone Machado Camillo and Michael
Gatto, describe how they adapted a textbook at the activity and unit level.
Below, we will hear from a teacher who adapted a textbook at the syllabus level
by adding two components important to her: community building and cultural
understanding. The teacher is Mary Patten. The course she describes took place
in Rabat, Morocco.
The course which I taught at the ALC (American Language Center)
and chose to redesign is Intermediate 1. It met three times per
week for 50 minutes each session. The textbook assigned to this
level was Crosscurrents 1, co-authored by Marcia Fisk Ong,
Kathleen Harrington, and Donald Occhiuzzo. It is a skills based
textbook which is driven by unit themes. Only the first four units
of the book were covered in this level.
Mary Patten
Due to the fact that my course had an existing text in place, my
choice regarding selection of materials was limited. I focused on
finding and developing supplementary materials that I could use in
conjunction with the text and adapting areas of the text to provide
a wider array of activities for my students to work with. I strongly
believe that students should be able to experience a variety of
materials from different sources, not only to provide opportunities
for exposure to these sources, but also as a means of addressing
the varied needs, interests, and intelligences (Gardner 1983)
of the students.
I also feel that it is important to integrate the individual into the
learning process in ways that allow the learner to make the learning
personally meaningful. A further extension of this idea is that learning in a classroom situation means that a learning community
exists, and as such, it can be utilized as a resource. However, in
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK •
197
order to make it a resource, the members must be aware of what it
is and must be willing to explore its dynamics together. This idea
leads into my desire to provide the students with opportunities to
explore the aspect of culture. As students of English, and more
specifically American English, they are being exposed to not only
the language, but the culture as well, yet the cultural aspects
addressed by the textbook do not really allow the learners to
explore and analyze what is being presented and then bring their
own experiences into play-at least not in depth .... Therefore,
I created two new components in my redesign to address the areas
of community building and culture.
Crosscurrents presents material in the form of theme-based units,
which provided a wonderful unifying agent to my development of
secondary materials. It also allowed me to integrate my objectives
regarding culture and community around the themes when planning
various activities. When I first began teaching the course, I was
puzzled as to how I would be able to incorporate the individual in
the learning process; but as I began working with the unit themes,
I found that they provided the key. I discovered that I could create
opportunities for individual expression, exploration, and meaningfulness through activities centered around the themes. I created two
component areas dealing with the aspects of community building
and culture, which were easily woven in to the unit themes and
forms that were to be addressed in the four skill areas.
Mary developed a grid for the four units covered in her course, shown in
Figure 9.5. The grid represents the content of each unit and includes the two
additional components of community building and culture.
Figure 9.5:
Course Design for Intermediate 1
American Language Center
Rabat, Morocco
Mary D. Patten
(Syllabus based on Unit 1-4 material from Crosscurrents 1, the assigned text for this level)
f=forms; s=skills; t=topics
198 "
Unit 4
Solutions
Unit Themes:
Unit 1
Communication
Unit 2
Male and Female
Unit 3
Animals
Topics:
Gestures,
customs,
learning attitudes,
expectations,
and strategies
Stereotypes,
professions,
gender-based
differences, family
and classroom
roles
Pets, hunting,
Disagreements
with neighbors
endangered
and relatives,
animals,
imaginary animals, sticky situations,
monsters
worries
Grammar:
Verb tense review:
simple present,
pres. cont., pres.
perf., simple past
Contrasting
tenses:
simple pres./pres.
cont., simple past;
pres. perf.; adj.
clauses with that
Verbs of
perception + like
for comparison,
real (first)
conditional
sentences
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Imaginative
future (second
conditionals),
sentences with
hope
Speaking;
Conversational
forms: storytelling, discussion
skills: story
openers,
showing interest,
relating personal
information,
comparing and
contrasting
Listening
Reading:
Writing:
rf: dialogues,
f: presentations,
f: dialogues,
discussion
s: sharing news,
stating opinions,
comparing and
contrasting
dialogues,
discussions
s: expressing
disbelief,
emphasizing
a point
presentations,
discussions
s: relating
personal
experiences,
suggesting
solutions to
a problem,
avoiding
misunderstanding
forms: dialogues,
f: dialogues,
f: presentations,
f: songs,
stories,
discussions
skills: listening
for details,
listening for gist
discussion
s: listening for
details
dialogues,
discussions
s: listening for
gist, predicting,
listening for
details, listening
for speaker's
attitude
dialogues,
discussions
s: predicting,
listening for
specific
information,
listening
for words
forms: textbook
f: textbook
f: textbook
passages,
personal letters,
illustrations
skills: getting
meaning through
context, getting
background from
illustrations
passages,
magazine articles,
student generated
paragraphs, lyrics
s: predicting,
reading for gist,
applying topic
to oneself
passages,
magazine articles,
student generated
paragraphs
s: skimming,
reading for gist,
guessing word
meanings from
context
f: song lyrics,
textbook
passages
s: pre-reading
discussion of
topic, reading
for gist
forms: personal
f: paragraph
s: brainstorming
ideas,
topic sentence,
supporting
sentences,
revising
f: paragraph
s: transitional
phrases, editing,
revising
t: group dynamics
t: personal stories, t: problems
letters
skills: brain-
storming ideas,
writing first draft,
revising
Community
Building:
topics: class-
Cultural:
topics: Moroccan
and American
forms of
communication
f: paragraph
s: brainstorming
to generate
ideas, subject;
verb agreement,
transitional
phrases
non-judgmental
acceptance
of the course's
structure and
possible
solutions
t: interpretation
t: treatment of
and observation
animals in
American and
Moroccan
cultures
t: intercultural
problems and
strategies for
developing
solutions
mates' names,
attitudes about
and preferred
styles for
learning English
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK •
199
As I have already stated, I was concerned with building
community and bringing a deeper focus on the aspect of culture in
the classroom in ways that allowed students to incorporate their
own experiences in the learning process. The first step in looking at
how I wanted to do this was to look at what each unit already had.
From here I modified, adapted, expanded, and created materials
that would allow for individual expression within a fixed thematic
unit, while making sure that the objectives for each skill were
being addressed.
Mary made a mind map for the second unit, "Male and Female," which centered around the theme of gender. She also made notes on the first page of the
unit about how to adapt it. The mind map and notes are in Appendixes 9-5 on
page 286 and 9-6 on page 287. She experimented with the sequencing of the
various activities in the unit.
Though several activities follow the sequence presented in Crosscurrents 1, many of them have been modified, and some have been
replaced by other materials. This particular unit included what I
saw as gender biased material, and I therefore sought materials
which could balance this bias.
The sequence is
in Appendix 9-7
on pages
288-289.
My mind map provides the overall layout of the unit, and how
I conceptualized progressing through it. Although it is somewhat
abstract, it makes sense to me and conjures up more through its
images than mere words could. However, I recognize that details
and explanations for sequencing are also important in providing a
rationale for the plan. For this reason I have made a sequencing
chart for the second unit, although its primary focus is on community building and culture. I have not detailed all the activities for
each day, such as the grammar presentations and practice activities,
though the grammar is implicitly incorporated into several of the
activities that I have included in the sequencing.
Mary has described a process of becoming clear about what is important to
her, based on her beliefs about how people learn languages, that is not included
in the textbook or adequately addressed in the syllabus. She "gets inside" the
units and finds ways to incorporate these additional elements. She finds that the
theme based approach is helpful.
THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM OF TEXTBOOKS
Mary raises the point that she feels the material is gender biased, something she
seeks to balance by bringing in additional materials. Textbooks represent a view
of language, learning, and social context held by authors and editors. In some
cases the view may be compatible with your own, in other cases not. An important part of investigating a textbook is to become aware of these views, which
are embedded in the aspects of language addressed in the textbook, who and
what are portrayed in the visuals, readings, and dialogues, and how students are
asked to work with the material.
200 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Look at the first page of the unit of Crosscurrents and Mary's notes on the
unit in ApfJendix 9-6 on page 287. Why do think Mary felt the material was
gender biased? Do you agree with her? Why or why not?
1\ uthors are not always aware that the ~hoices they make reflect certain views
.L\.of students and language. In the tmd 1980s, Elsa Auerbach and Denise
Burgess analyzed a number of textbooks and curriculum guides written for
adult learners in the United States and found a "hidden curriculum," whose
choice of topics, functions, and activities treated the learners as recipients of language and learners of behaviors that supported the status quo, rather than as
adults capable of analyzing their situations and proposing solutions. For example, they pointed out that "Language functions in most survival texts include
asking for approval, clarification, reassurance, permission, and so on, but not
praising, criticizing, complaining, refusing, or disagreeing." (1987, p. 159).
Although it may not have been the authors' intention to write material that
would equip students only to acquiesce to the status quo, that was, in effect,
what happened.
In a later study, Karen Grady (1997) analyzed the assumptions underlying
many textbooks whose goal is to develop communicative competence. She used
Intercom 2000 as an example. (We saw examples of how Simone Camillo
adapted activities in Intercom 2000 Book 1 earlier in this chapter on pages
188-191.) Grady points out that the way characters are portrayed, what they do
and discuss, trivializes both characters' and-by extension-students' lives. For
example, work is portrayed as an optional activity, not as necessary for survival.
Emphasis is on the grammatical correctness of an utterance, not necessarily on
its content. For example, a discussion about elections is used as a basis for disagreement using emphatic do as in He does help poor people, rather than as a
basis for a discussion about poverty.
I don't exempt myself from such criticism. My own experience writing a textbook for an international market confirms the tendency to choose uncontroversial topics, to treat them in a supposedly neutral fashion, and to write about
characters who are middle class, in the interest of reaching a wider market. I am
concerned, howevet~ about how far the critiques cited above, which are written
from an ESL perspective in which English is a matter of survival and acceptance,
can be applied to EFL settings. For example, how far can an American teacher
in Japan pursue an issue such as gender inequality in a way that does not presume that her intention is to bring her students around to her views?
The following questions and investigation are designed to help you explore
the assumptions underlying the textbook you use. Being clear about your own
beliefs about the role you want your learners to take in their learning, and about
the skills and strategies you want them to learn, can help you to be aware of the
beliefs underlying the texts you use. Your ability to adapt the textbook so that it
aligns with your beliefs and purposes will depend on clarity about those beliefs
and your own role, and comfort with bringing to the fore and dealing with
issues that are ideologically based.
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK "
201
Questions to ask in analyzing a text:
People: Whom does the text portray with respect to gender, culture,
socio-economic background, family make-up, and so on? How are
they portrayed?
Topics: How are topics in the text treated? Are they seen only as
a basis for learning language-specific elements such as vocabulary,
functions, and grammar, or are they also seen as means for learners
to explore their own experience? Do they promote a single view
of the topic or allow for a multiplicity of views?
Language and skills: Do the language (grammar, vocabulary,
functions) or skills (speaking, reading, writing, listening) in the
text provide the means for learners to express their needs, to solve
problems, to make decisions? Do the examples of language favor
a view of gender, class, race, culture?
Visual material: Does the visual material in the text favor a view
of gender, class, race, culture?
Tasks and activities: Do the tasks and activities in the text
give learners opportunities for reflection, problem-solving, and
decision making?
Text: If there are readings (authentic or pedagogically prepared)
in the text, whose point of view do they represent? Why were
they chosen? How are the students asked to relate to the readings:
as examples of language, as information to be learned, as texts
to be challenged?
,.
m
..
Choose a unit from your textbook and analyze it in terms of two or three
of the areas and questions listed above .
•,
Are there views that are incompatible with your own? What are some ways
you could adapt the textbook so that it is more compatible with your own
views? For example, initiating a discussion about stereotypes and whether the
characters represent stereotypes; bringing in supplementary material, as Mary
Patten proposed to do, in order to provide alternative views of a topic; posing
questions similar to the ones above, that ask students to view the text critically.
Discuss your findings with a colleague.
FACTORS OTHER THAN THE TEXTBOOK ITSELF
In the last investigation, your beliefs and understandings about how people
learn played an important role in your interpretation of the text. In order to
make decisions about how to adapt a textbook at the activity, unit, or syllabus
level, it is important to be aware of your beliefs and understandings, the givens
of your context, and what you know about students and their needs.
202
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DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 9.6:
Factors to Consider in Adapting a Textbook
The givens of your context
e.g., institutional latitude with respect to adapting a text, schedule,
examination system, number and level of students, time of day.
Your beliefs and understandings about how people Jearn languages
e.g., through interaction or introspection, by using all four skills, by
identifying problems and proposing solutions.
Your students' needs and interests
e.g., their level, whether they will use the language in specific contexts,
whether they have certain expectations about how they will be taught.
Your beliefs and understandings play a key role because they can help you
make decisions about what is core and what is not, according to what you deem
important with respect to what the students are learning and how you want
them to learn. These beliefs and understandings can also help you make decisions about what to add and what to change. We have seen above how Simone
Camillo's belief in student involvement as a key to learning influenced her decisions about how to adapt the activities. We also saw how one teacher, Mary
Patten, adapted a textbook to give it both a group dynamics and an intercultural focus, because of her beliefs about how people learn.
Your students' needs and interests also play a major role in decisions about
adapting a textbook. My students in Brazil, for example, told me they wanted
more practice with functional language and less emphasis on grammar, and felt
that role plays were an ideal way to practice the functions. Their input helped
me make decisions about which exercises to emphasize and spend more time on
and which ones to drop or assign for homework.
The institutional context in which you work plays a crucial role in decisions
about adapting a text. In some contexts, teachers have a great deal of latitude as
far as what they do in the classroom. In other contexts, teachers may need to be
sensitive to institutional and cultural constraints with respect to what, how, and
how much they can adapt the textbook. Another important given of your context is time: how often, for how long each time, and how long overall you meet
with your students. Depending on time factors, you may not be able to do all the
activities in a textbook and so will need to determine which aspects are core and
should be addressed and which are not core and can be left out. Conversely, you
may have more time and be expected to supplement the activities.
1m) This
can be done as a mind map or in list form. Essentially, you want
to clarify:
1. what you know about the context that will have an impact on how
you use a textbook, such as schedule, class size, and examinations.
(You may have done this in Chapter 2, Investigation 2.3.)
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK
0
203
2. what you feel is important in learning languages based on your beliefs
and understandings (You may have done this in Chapter 3,
Investigation 3.6.)
3. what you know about your students and their needs (You may have
done this in Chapter 6, Investigation 6.4.)
Pare each list down to its essentials: key phrases, words, and images that will
help you as you investigate the textbook.
In the last investigation you will draw up a plan for adapting the unit you
have worked on in previous investigations for your particular context. The
process of figuring out how to adapt this one unit will prepare you for adapting
other units. You have prepared the way through the work you have done in:
IIIII
Investigation 9.3b in which you made a map, grid, or chart
of the unit
IIIII
Investigation 9.6 in which you resequenced a unit from another
textbook
1111
1111
.....
Investigation 9.8 in which you analyzed the assumptions
underlying the language and activities in the unit
Investigation 9.9 in which you wrote the key phrases, words
or images that would help you consider contextual factors,
students' needs, and your own beliefs and understandings.
'··'I
.,,
~ Draw up a plan for how you would teach the unit based. on what you
know about your context, your students' needs, and your own beliefs and
understandings. You have several options as to how to do this.
1. Draw up a mind map, as Mary Patten did.
2. Cut up the unit, resequence it, and write notes on it,
as Michael Gatto did.
3. Write comments in the textbook itself.
4. Use a format that works for you.
THE CYCLE OF TEXTBOOK ADAPTATION
The plan you have drawn up in the preceding investigation is only the first part
in the cycle of adapting a textbook. This follows the same cycle as course development: planning how to teach with the text, teaching, (all the while adjusting
as you plan and teach), replanning based on evaluating the teaching and the
text, reteaching with the text.
204
° DESIGNING
LANGUAGE COURSES:
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GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Figure 9.7:
The Cycle of Textbook Adaptation
Stage 1
Planning how to
teach with the text
Stage 4
Reteaching
Ongoing
assessment
and decision
~Stage2
making
Teaching with
the text
Stage 3
Replanning how to teach
The work you have done to plan a unit in the investigations above provides a
basis for further changes, once you have had a chance to teach with the textbook. In stage two, teaching the book, you may choose to ask your students to
express their views of how effective the textbook and your adaptations of it are
with respect to their needs and their learning. In the next chapter we will look at
designing an assessment plan. Each aspect of the plan, needs assessment
(addressed in Chapter 6), assessment of language learning, and course evaluation, can also be part of a course built around a textbook. In Chapter 10, we
will see how Mary Patten designed assessment activities for her unit.
A teacher in Taiwan provided a good example of how the cycle worked for
her. She came up to me after a presentation I had given on using textbooks. She
had a copy of one of the books I had co-authored. She riffled through the pages
of the book, which were covered with little yellow "post it" notes on which she
had written notes to herself. She said "Your book was hard to teach the first
time, much easier to teach the second time." She showed me how the notes had
helped her to make changes and adaptations. To return to the piano analogy, the
first time she played the piece of music, it was new to her and not necessarily
easy to play. With practice and familiarity, however, she could play it with more
confidence and skill. Each time she went through the cycle of planning, teaching, replanning, and reteaching, she became more comfortable making choices
about what to emphasize, what to leave out, and where to supplement and personalize the material. She was using the textbook as a resource for her students'
learning. In terms of adapting the textbook to her particular students in her particular context, her yellow post-it notes and what they represented-reflecting
and learning how to make the text work for her and her students-had allowed
her to become, in effect, a co-author of the book.
I'd like to close the chapter with Mary Patten's summary of her experience
learning to adapt a textbook:
See pages
231-232
for Mary Patten's
assessment
activities.
ADAPTING A TEXTBOOK •
205
Mary Patten
Although the textbook was a constraint as far as allowing for
student choice (or teacher choice for that matter) on what themes
would be addressed in the class, I think that in the end I have been
able to look at how to use a text as a sort of skeletal form which
provides a certain amount of structure but which also allows for
personal adaptation. I am excited to have broken through some
of my former feelings of being bound to the textbook in its existing
form, and I am looking forward to new opportunities to explore
working with other texts.
Suggested Readings
I haven't seen a lot about adapting a textbook, particularly at the unit or syllabus level. There is a book in the Longman Keys to Language Teaching series
called Making the Most of Your Textbook, by Neville Grant (1987), but it views
textbook adaptation at the activity level, and so its focus is rather narrow. It
does provide examples of how to make activities more communicative, and is
useful as a materials development tool. Penny Ur's chapters on "Materials" and
"Topic Content" in her book, A Course in Language Teaching (1996), provide
ideas for how to adapt a textbook, again, mainly at the activity level, and her
unit, "Underlying Messages," provides some good activities for investigating
textbook bias.
Karen Grady's article, "Critically Reading an ESL Textbook" (1997), is
thoughtful and thought provoking, and she provides clear examples to illustrate
each of her points.
.
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DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
10
DESIGNING AN
AssESSMENT PLAN
T
o get started in thinking about assessment, I'd like to use an excerpt from
one of the teacher's voices from Kathleen Bailey's book in this series,
Learning About Language Assessment: Dilemmas, Decisions, and Directions.
The voice is Pete Rogan's and he is describing his experience teaching English in
two high schools in Poland, which took place early in his career.
With [some of the ] classes, I was responsible for the full range of
course design, including evaluation. Learning that a failing grade
in my course (or in any course) would mean that a student would
need to repeat the whole year of schooling, I became intimidated
by evaluation. For most of the semester, I avoided the issue, freed
the students of the anxiety of test-taking and forged ahead. As the
semester drew to a close, however, it became clear that I had little
evidence to svpport decisions about course grades. Now I was in
the situation that whatever test or task I designed would carry an
immense weight by itself in the semester evaluation. This was the
nightmare I had dreaded all along-one-shot, indirect, inauthentic
assessment. (p. 205)
Pete Rogan
E!!l] Read about Pete Rogan's situation in Poland.
What advice would you give him about assessment so that he would not find
himself faced with the dilemma he describes? Discuss your ideas with a colleague.
To find out what he did, consult Learning About Language Assessment:
Dilemmas, Decisions, and Directions, page 206.
Now, think back to a course you have taught or in which you were a learner
What role did assessment, as you understand it, play in the course?
THE ROLE OF ASSESSMENT IN COURSE DESIGN
Assessment plays three interrelated and overlapping roles in course design. The
first is assessing needs, the second is assessing students' learning, and the third is
evaluating the course itself. Needs assessment is the subject of Chapter 6. This
chapter will look at plans for assessing students' learning and evaluating the
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
207
course itself, as well as their relationship to needs assessment. Broadly speaking,
needs assessment can help to answer the question What (and how) do students
need to learn with respect to __ ? Language learning assessment answers the
question What have students learned with respect to __ ? Course evaluation
answers the question How effective is/was the course in helping them learn
__ ? An assessment plan for a course should take into account these three different types of assessment.
Assessment can be both formative and summative. Formative assessment
takes place as the course is in progress and provides information about how well
the students are doing-what they have achieved, what they need to work on,
and how well the course is meeting their needs. The teacher uses the information
to guide her decisions as the course unfolds. Summative assessment is done at
the end of a course and provides information about the students' overall
achievement as well as the overall effectiveness of the course. There is a parallel
between assessing the students' learning and evaluating the course. When you
assess students' learning, you assess what they have achieved with respect to
what they have been learning in the course. When you evaluate the course, you
assess what your course design has achieved with respect to your intentions in
designing it.
In the pedagogical grammar course I teach, my assessment plan includes
ongoing needs assessment, assessment of learning, and course evaluation. I will
first describe my learning assessment plan and my course evaluation plan and
then explain how ongoing needs assessment is embedded in them.
The course has tluee units: phonology, lexicon, and an introduction to syntax
and transformational grammar. The last unit is divided into sub-units. My learning assessment plan for each unit has three parts: pre- and post-reflective questions about the unit material, tests, and lesson plans. The reflective questions at
the beginning of each unit ask students to articulate what they know about the
unit content as well as to list questions they have about it. They reread their
answers at the end of the unit and write about how their thinking has changed,
what they've learned, as well as which questions they have (or still have). I
respond to their questions with answers or suggestions for further resources.
For the unit take home tests, which I call "reviews," students have to answer
questions related to the content of the unit. They answer the questions once
through "from their heads." The second time, they use a different pen and
answer the questions with the help of notes, books, and/or peers. (For a complete description of how these tests are conducted, see "Self-tests," pp. 60-63, in
New Ways in Teacher Education, Freeman and Cornwell, eds., TESOL 1993.) I
read and make notes on each test before handing it back. Some students are
asked to make revisions, if there are incorrect answers or unanswered questions.
Students also have to prepare and teach a lesson related to the unit content.
After teaching the lessons outside of class, they bring in the written plan and
reflection on teaching it to class, present it to their peers in small groups, and
then hand in the lesson to me. I return the lessons with questions, comments,
and suggestions. Lesson plans may need to be rethought and revised if I feel they
have missed the point of the particular aspect of grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation teaching.
,.,,,
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208 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
My course evaluation plan includes periodic feedback on the course and a
summative course and teacher evaluation. My questions for the periodic feedback are usually phrased as "What's working for you in the course?" "What
isn't working for you?" "What suggestions do you have for changes?"
Sometimes I hand out index cards and they write answers using a different side
for each question. I compile the feedback in two columns (positive, negative +
suggestions), give an oral summary in the next class, with responses to their suggestions, and post the summary on the bulletin board. At other times, I conduct
the feedback orally. I usually have an end-of-course feedback session in which I
ask particular questions that I am interested in about the effectiveness of the
course, for example about materials used, the reviews, the sequence. The written
end of course evaluation by the students is one that the program administers; it
includes numerical scales as well as room for comments. I see these once I have
handed in my grades.
Needs assessment is linked to both assessment of learning and course evaluation. The questions the students list at the beginning of each unit with respect to
the content of the unit give me a picture of their needs, and I try to include ways
to address these in my lessons, if possible or appropriate. Some of the questions
are similar each year, some are unique to a given group. The periodic feedback
gives me information about their affective and learning needs such as whether
they feel the pace is appropriate, how they feel about small and large group work,
whether learning the terminology is intimidating or empowering, and so on. The
tests and lesson plans show me what they have learned and can apply and also
where there are gaps and more work is needed. I keep a record of their questions,
their feedback, and how they do on the tests and the lesson plans. Overall, students know what is expected of them and are held accountable. Students also
know what I expect of myself, and I ask them to hold me accountable.
ASSESSING STUDENTS' LEARNING
Kathi Bailey's Learning About Language Assessment: Dilemmas, Decisions, and
Directions, referred to at the beginning of this chapter, is devoted to assessing
students' language learning. In this chapter, we focus on how this type of assessment fits into the overall framework of course design. For more in depth treatment of assessment and testing, with examples of different kinds of assessment
instruments including direct and indirect tests, multiple choice tests, role plays,
authentic tests and portfolios, please refer to Bailey's book and to the suggested
readings in her bibliography.
E'.!iB Do the following investigation either before reading the next section to
articulate what you know and provide a basis for comparison, or after you read
it, as a means of summarizing your understanding.
Answer the following questions about assessing students' learning and compare them with a colleague's answers.
DESIGNING AN AsSESSMENT PLAN •
209
Assessing students' learning
Who assesses students' learning?
What is assessed?
Why assess students' learning?
How can you assess students' learning?
When can you assess students' learning?
What is done with the results of assessment?
ho assesses students' learning? Possible answers are the teacher, the student, the students, the institution. In traditional thinking, the teacher or
the institution makes the decisions about what, why, how, and when to assess.
However, as we shall see in the examples that follow, the students can share in
some-or many-of those responsibilities, depending on the teacher's goals for
the course, his beliefs about the roles of learners in learning, and feasibility within the context.
What is assessed? What includes both a global and a specific answer. The
global answer depends on the way you have conceptualized the content of the
course and the way that conceptualization has been articulated in goals and
objectives. For example, if you are teaching a speaking and listening course
whose objectives include being able to speak in "real world" situations, then
your assessment plan will include ways to assess students' ability to speak in
those situations. For example, a group of business people who are learning how
to participate in meetings in the target language will be assessed on that ability.
A group of students who plan to use the target language in tourist settings will
be assessed accordingly. If you are teaching a content-based history course for
high school students whose objectives include the ability to read and analyze
history texts as well as the development of strategies to do so, then your assessment plan will include ways to assess your students' development of strategies as
well as their reading and analytical skills. If you are designing an integrated
skills course for adult immigrants whose objectives include developing literacy
skills, then you will assess those skills. Your goals and objectives for the course
provide a guide for what you assess.
The specific answer to what you assess has to do with the criteria for assessment. In her thesis on learner-centered assessment, Sally Cavanaugh writes,
"A critical role in the assessment process is deciding which criteria to use."
(1995) I have found this point to be the most important and the most problematic for teachers. In his introduction to New Ways of Classroom Assessment
(1998, p. vi), J.D. Brown points out that assessment activities (as distinct from
tests), while they may look like normal classroom activities, are different
because "they provide a way of observing or scoring students' performances and
giving feedback in the form of a score or other information (e.g., notes in the
margin, written prose reactions, oral critiques, teacher conferences) that can
enlighten the students and teachers about the effectiveness of the language learning and teaching involved." The basis on which the students are scored or on
210 "
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
which feedback is given are the criteria Sally mentions above. For example, a
teacher may have as a goal "Students will be able to give effective business presentations." In order to assess whether students are able to give effective presentations, she or he needs to have criteria for what is meant by "effective." Those
criteria need to be communicated to and understood by the students.
Furthermore, the students need to learn how to meet the criteria. The criteria
could be a set of guidelines, which, in effect, constitute one set of objectives to
meet the goal. A teacher who has not developed criteria will simply have the students give presentations. However, it is not enough to provide students with
opportunities for such presentations. Without criteria for what an effective presentation involves, teachers can neither teach nor assess the requisite skills.
The processes of conceptualizing content, formulating goals and objectives,
and developing a syllabus constitute an important foundation for being able to
develop criteria for assessment. For one thing, they help to narrow the arena for
what will be assessed. Formulating goals and objectives for an integrated skills
course will help the teacher make decisions about which skills and topics will be
addressed and therefore can be assessed.
WHY
Do You ASSESS STUDENTS' LEARNING?
The following figure, adapted from Kathi Bailey's book on assessment, captures
the major purposes for assessing students' language abilities and learning in
course design:
Figure 10.1:
Compare to
page 39 of
Bailey's book.
Four Major Purposes for Assessing Learning in Course Design
Assessing
proficiency
Diagnosing
ability/needs
Assessing
Progress
Assessing
Achievement
pre course:
to place students
appropriately
pre and
during course:
in order to
identify and
meet needs
during course:
to assess
progress
at end of
course or unit:
in order to assess
what has been
learned and/or
assign a grade
post course:
may be done
to assess
achievement
Below is a simplified overview of how the four purposes outlined above relate
to course design. The examples of teachers' assessment plans that follow will, I
hope, show how these purposes are carried out within the context of a course.
We assess proficiency in order to find out in a broad sense what the learner or
learners are able to do in the language. Proficiency can be assessed with respect
to speaking, listening, reading, and writing. For example, the ACTFL proficiency guidelines (1986), which were developed by the American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages, provide a systematic set of criteria for assessing
proficiency in each of these areas. As Bailey points out in her book, proficiency
testing has nothing to do with how the person reached that level of proficiency
(1998, p. 38). Assessment of proficiency provides us with a starting point as the
learner embarks on the course because it gives us an idea of his or her ability
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN •
211
level with respect to what was assessed. It is important for course design so that
we can be sure that the goals and objectives and materials of the course are
appropriate with respect to level of difficulty in the targeted skills.
Proficiency testing may be done formally as part of the placement process or
may be assessed informally as part of initial needs assessment. An initial proficiency assessment tool, such as an interview, can also be used at the end of the
course to assess achievement. Some teachers record the initial and end-of-course
interviews so that the students can literally hear the progress they have made.
Some programs use a standard proficiency test as a pre-test for placement purposes and a post-test for achievement purposes. One problem with using proficiency tests for achievement purposes is that they may violate a cardinal rule of
achievement testing: teachers should test what has been taught. If there are elements of the proficiency test that have not been addressed in the course, then
they are not good indicators of achievement.
Diagnostic assessment is designed to find out what learners can and can't do
with respect to a skill, task, or content area. The skill or task is derived from the
content and objectives of the course. For example, if one objective of a writing
course is that students will be able to write business letters, then a diagnostic
assessment could involve assigning them the task of writing a business letter
within certain parameters (e.g., the company and purpose for writing the letter).
Comparing their letters to target examples (by fluent or native speakers) will
provide a picture of what they know how to do (abilities) and what they don't
know how to do (needs). This type of assessment can be viewed as part of ongoing needs assessment.
Assessing progress means finding out what the learner has learned with
respect to what has been taught at different points in the course. To continue
with the business letter example: as students are taught how to write effective
business letters, each letter they write can be viewed in relation to the first one
they wrote and in relation to the target, showing the progress they have madewhat they have achieved-and where they still need to work. One of the principles of assessing progress is that you should assess only what has been taught. If
one of the objectives of a speaking and listening course is for students to be able
to give effective presentations, then the syllabus and materials will target and
teach that skill, criteria will be developed, and students will be assessed on their
ability to give an effective presentation. If the teacher simply has students give
presentations without teaching them what is involved and how to improve their
skills, then they should not be tested on their ability to give presentations.
Additionally, the modality used to test should be the one that is being tested: an
assessment tool which asks students to write a report about their presentation
would be inappropriate since it does not test their oral abilities.
Assessing achievement is a summative form of assessment, since it is designed
to find out what the students have mastered with respect to the knowledge and
skills that have been taught in the course or unit. Assessing achievement can also
be used as one of the bases for giving grades. If you are expected to give grades,
then your assessment plan must include the bases on which grades are given.
Part of that plan may be achievement tests or activities. The plan may also
include factors such as participation, project work, completion of individual
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212 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
EVALUATING THE COURSE
ll!Jm
Do the following investigation either before reading the next section to
articulate what you know and provide a basis for comparison, or after you read
it, as a means of summarizing your understanding.
How would you answer the questions below? Compare your answers with
a colleague.
Evaluating the course
1. Who evaluates the course?
2. What can be evaluated?
3. Why evaluate the course?
4. How can you evaluate it? (What are some ways to evaluate it?)
5. When can you evaluate it?
6. What is done with the results of evaluation?
Who evaluates the course? In formative evaluation of the course, it is usually
the teacher and the students who evaluate its effectiveness. In summative evaluation, in addition to the teacher and students, the institution may have an official means of evaluating the effectiveness of a course.
What is evaluated? Each aspect of the course design can be assessed and
evaluated:
1111
'"
1111
Ill
1111
111
1111
214 •
the goals and objectives: Are/were they realistic? appropriate?
achievable? How should they be changed?
the course content: Is/was it what the students needled? at the
right level? comprehensive enough? focused enough?
the needs assessment: Did it provide the needed information? the
right amount of information? in a timely way? Did the students
understand it? Was it appropriately and effectively responded to?
the way the course is organized: Does it flow from unit to unit
and within units? Do students perceive a sensible progression? Is
the course content woven together in a balanced way? Is material
recycled throughout the course?
the materials and methods: Are they at the right level? Is the
material engaging? Do the students have enough opportunities
to learn what they need to? Is the material relevant? Are the
students comfortable with their roles? the teacher's role?
the learning assessment plan: Do students understand how they
will be assessed and why? Do assessment activities assess what
has been learned? Do they help students diagnose needs?
measure progress or achievement? Are they timely?
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
fill
the course evaluation plan: Do students understand how the
course is being evaluated and their role? Do they understand
the purpose? Is the formative evaluation timely? Does it provide
useful information?
Why evaluate the course? The purposes of formative evaluation are: to evaluate what is effective and to change what isn't so that the course effectively
meets students' needs (as negotiated within the course context); to give students
a voice in their learning; to provide information for the redesign of the course.
The purposes of summative evaluation are: to make decisions about whether the
course should continue or not; to assess the "achievement" of the course; to provide information for the redesign of the course.
How can you evaluate the course? You can evaluate the course through systematic observation, feedback (oral or written, individual or group), questionnaires, dialogue journals, ranking activities, and so on.
When can you evaluate the course? You can evaluate the course periodically,
at natural intervals (end of week, unit); at the midterm, or at the end of the
course; when problems arise.
What is done with the results of evaluation? Formative evaluation information
is used to retain effective aspects of the course and to change ineffective aspects
while teaching it. Summative information is used to improve it for next time.
The course development cycle introduced in Chapter 1 captures the way in
which evaluation of the course works. The course is evaluated throughout Stage
2 in order to make improvements as it is being taught. Information from both
formative and summative evaluation informs Stages 3 and 4.
Figure 10.2:
The Course Development Cycle
Stage 1
Planning the course
\
Stage 2
Teaching the course
Thus the purpose of evaluating the course is to help you make decisions on
both an ongoing and final basis about the course. Ongoing needs assessment
and formative course evaluation overlap, since they help to gauge students'
affective needs, learning needs, and language needs while the course is in
progress so that the course can be modified, as appropriate, to promote learning. For example, if students assess the activities they have done in a given week
in terms of which they felt most effective for their learning, the teacher has infor-
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN '"
215
mation he or she can use to improve the course. Teachers can also gain this
information from systematic observation of students' work in class and in the
course while it is in progress.
Em
What were the ways in which you evaluated the effectiveness of the last
course you taught? Was the evaluation formative or summative? How did the
information help you?
If you have not taught a course, choose a course in which you were a learner.
How and when was the effectiveness of the course evaluated?
WHAT ARE SOME WAYS TO DESIGN AN ASSESSMENT PLAN?
See Appendix 5-1,
pages 239-241,
for David
Thomson's goals
and objectives.
David Thomson
We will look at five assessment plans below. The first is David Thomson's plan
for his course "Writing using computers" in an intensive English program in the
United States. The second is Sally Cavanaugh's plan for a low-intermediate general English course in a university in Japan. The third is Sally's plan for assessing
writing in an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) setting in Australia. The
fourth is Denise Maksail-Fine's plan for her Spanish 3 course in a rural high
school in the United States, and the fifth is Mary Patten's plan for assessing her
students' learning of the material in a textbook unit she taught in Morocco.
David Thomson's assessment plan for the writing component of his course
for high intermediate level ESL students "Writing Using Computers" is part of a
redesign of a similar course he had taught twice before. It is an elective course
given in the afternoons in an intensive English program in the United States.
There are 12 students from different cultures. Their level of English is high intermediate to advanced. He writes about the course:
Though some of the students had never used computers before,
they were quickly able to learn and by the second week, with a little
coaching from me and other students, could do everything I asked
them to do. The students were between the ages of 15 and 24,
part of a generation that has grown up using technology, so the
technology learning curve was not so steep.
By the end of each of the two terms, I noticed an improvement in
students' writing and more importantly in their interest in writing.
Students would become so involved in what they were working on
that I would often have to tell them that class was finished, time to
go home. This was very impressive-! had never seen students so
engrossed in their work. What was even more impressive, though,
was the self-direction they showed .... I had given them the assignments at the beginning of the term, and most were able and willing
to proceed with little more than minimal instruction. It was watching the students get involved with what they were doing and watching them take responsibility for their studies that made me want to
work more on developing this course.
His assessment plan follows. Some parts of the plan were retained from the old
course, some were new.
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E!m Read through David Thomson's assessment plan and his reflections on it.
1. Which parts of his plan assess students' needs? Which parts of his plan
assess students' learning? Which parts of his plan evaluate the effectiveness of the course?
2. What do you like about his plan? What don't you like? Why?
3. As this is David's plan prior to teaching, (in other words, he hasn't been
able to "test" it in practice), what advice would you give him about
what to take into consideration as he tries out his plan?
David Thomson's Assessment Plan
1. Student letter: Students write a letter about writing in English in which
they write about their past experiences with writing, their future needs,
the problems they have encountered, what they hope to work on in
class. They also include two goals they would like to accomplish during
the course.
2. Error correction symbol sheet: Students review a composite list of their
errors from the writing sample during the placement tests. They use
an "Error Correction Symbols" handout to help them understand how
the errors are coded and how to correct them. By doing this, they also
gain practice with the symbols sheet as an assessment tool. (See
Appendix 10-1 page 290.)
3. Self-rating forms: Students rate themselves as writers. They rate
themselves according to a "Types of Writing" form which includes
examples of the types of writing referenced in the ACTFL Advanced
Writing section. They then rate themselves on four "Writing Evaluation"
forms. (The forms are in Appendix 10-2 on pages 291-294.)
David comments on the "Types of Writing" form:
The ACTFL
guidelines were
developed by the
American Council
on the Teaching
of Foreign
Languages.
These are the kinds of writing advanced level students are expected
to do competently. This form and the self-assessment process are discussed in class, then students are asked to try to be objective and rate
their ability to do these kinds of writing. This same form will also be
used at the end of the second week and at the end of the fourth week
so students can see if they made progress during the term.
He comments on the "Writing Evaluation" forms:
The other forms-"Writing Evaluation" forms-list a variety of
writing skills under four general categories (I. Content/Organization, II. Vocabulary/Word Choice, III. Language Use, IV. Mechanics).
Students review the forms to make sure they understand the various
categories and skills. They discuss the forms with a partner and
then with the class as a whole. For homework they are to rate themselves on each continuum and then put a date next to the rating.
Additionally, they choose two skill areas from each sheet that they
want to focus on during that term.
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
217
Listed below each skill area are several blank lines for "strategies."
I will work with students throughout the term to help facilitate their
awareness of the various strategies they can use to improve in each
of the skill areas. Students will record the different strategies they
have tried or want to try on this part of the form.
Below the lines for strategies are descriptions of what "excellent"
is for each of the skills. Here students are given a definition of
one pole on the continuum and are told the other (poor) means
"having no ability in this area."
I have included one of the forms below. Please note that the actual form is two
pages with a lot more space between lines and sections.
Writing Evaluation Forms
I. Content/Organization
A. Introduction/Thesis Statement
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The writing has an introduction that clearly frames and establishes
the purpose of the paper, and gets the reader's attention. For multi-paragraph
assignments, a clear thesis statement has been written to inform the reader
of the gist (perhaps point of view, theme, primary point of argument, etc.)
of the paper.
B. Topic Sentence(s)/Supporting Details
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: Each paragraph has a clearly stated topic sentence that is followed
by supporting information, details, facts, or opinions. The writer's ideas andjor
opinions are well developed and supported.
C. Logical SequencingjConnection of Ideas and Information I Cohesion
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The writing is well organized at all levels. Information flows in a logical sequence (from general to specific, from most important to least important,
chronologically, etc.). Information in the paragraph is directly related to the
topic sentence. Appropriate transition words are used throughout. The writer
effectively uses pronouns and other referential links.
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D. Conclusion
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:------------------------EXCELLENT: The main points of the writing assignment have been briefly
reiterated or summarized in a conclusion.
David comments on the rating sheets:
Each time students write a paper they will rate their writing,
(i.e., that specific piece) on each of the same continua by marking
the date. At the end of the course, students will have a record to
show their progress during the term.
4. Portfolios: Each of the forms and each draft of a writing assignment
is kept in a portfolio.
David comments on the portfolio:
A portfolio is a collection of the students' work done during the
term. By the end of the course students will have rated themselves
on each of the forms so they will have a sense of their successes
and the areas that still require work. I, too, will use the formsthe same kind of forms used by the students-to rate them on each
assignment. At the end of the term, they will have two copies of
each form-one filled out by them, the other by me.
5. Grammar/Vocabulary Log: In this log students record new vocabulary,
grammar structures, idioms, collocations they learn. The log is kept in
their portfolio.
6. Teacher-student dialogue journals
David comments on the dialogue journal:
This is my way to keep in touch with the students individually.
My intent is to get them to express themselves to me. I encourage
them to ask me questions about any subject they are interested in.
Sometimes the questions are about language, sometimes about
life in the United States, sometimes about frustrations with the
program. I will answer their questions and often ask them my own.
I only correct their mistakes if they ask me to. I want them to feel
comfortable writing and feel they have a teacher with whom they
can communicate freely without fear of criticism or censure.
This is also my main way to evaluate the course, to see what is
important to students and what is of little consequence. Throughout
the term I ask students to give me feedback on what we are doing
and also tell me what they would like to be doing or would rather
be doing. At the end of the term, this information will be used to
determine the effectiveness of the course and to decide what should
be changed the following term.
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
219
7. End of course letter: In this letter students write about what they
learned during the term and what they feel they still need to work on.
They review their original goals and evaluate how close they came to
reaching them.
8. A final self-rating: Students use the rating sheets to assess their writing
skills based on the writing evaluation forms.
9. A read aloud: Students choose the writing they are most proud of and
read it aloud to their classmates.
I'd like to analyze David Thomson's writing plan according to the WH
Question framework.
Who assesses? The main assessors in the course are the students themselves:
they set goals and rate each piece of writing. They assess progress. The teacher
also rates their writing.
What is assessed? The global answer is the students' writing. The specific
answer lies in his evaluation sheets, which are based on the ACTFL proficiency
guidelines. These sheets carefully spell out the criteria for good writing at that
level. The criteria provide the basis for diagnosis and improvement. The students will need to learn to use the rating sheets in order for them to be successful assessment tools.
Regarding the course, David has not specified which aspects of the course he
will ask students to evaluate in their dialogue journals.
Why? For what purposes? The initial rating is a subjective one in which students determine their entry proficiency level and also try to diagnose needs.
Diagnosis then happens on a regular basis with each of their compositions. The
diagnosis is done by both teacher and students. Progress is measured by dating
each assessment and comparing over time. Achievement assessment is done with
a final rating using the scales, and at the end students choose their best piece to
read aloud. The initial and end-of-course letters also provide a means for assessing achievement.
How? Assessment take several forms: the pieces of writing and the rating
scales, which are kept in a portfolio; the first and last day letters; the error correction sheets, which are a tool for diagnosing and assessing errors; the learning
logs, which are records of learning, a form of achievement. The dialogue journals are used for course evaluation rather than assessment of learning.
When? Assessment starts on the first day and is ongoing. Although there is a
summative assessment in the form of the final rating, letter, and read aloud, students have been given and learned how to use tools which will enable them to
continue to assess their own writing beyond the classroom.
What is done with the results of assessment? Each of the assessment tools is
meant to provide students with a means to understand and assess their own
work in an ongoing way, both within the class and after they leave the class.
220
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N
ow I would like to turn to Sally Cavanough's experiences with assessment
in Japan and Australia, which she has written about in her Master's thesis
"Learner Centred Assessment for the Classroom Teacher" (1995). In each setting, Sally involved her students in determining the criteria for assessment based
on her beliefs that a learner-centered approach to teaching in which learners
have a say in what and how they are taught, should also include a learner-centered approach to assessment in which learners and teacher collaborate on how
they are assessed. Assessment procedures need to correspond to the learning
processes in class. In the first setting, the students were in a low-intermediate 4
skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) course in a Japanese university.
Below is her complete assessment plan:
Sally Cavanough
IE7 Class Assessment Plan
This is how you will be assessed during the semester:
What
How
Percent of grade
Attendance
daily count
20%
Participation
4 observations each
20%
1 student-made quiz
15%
tasks/group presentations
tasks
oral assessment
15%
20%
10%
Coursework:
111 Textjclasswork
111 Projects:
Brazil Tour
Mixed Projects
1111
Conversation skills
1. Attendance. There are 48 classes this semester. If you only miss two
classes, you will get an A.
A 48-46 (2 absences)
C 43-42 (6 absences)
B 45-44 (4 absences)
F 41- (7 or more absences)
2. Participation. Your participation grade is based on the following Table of
Standards that we made in class:
5.
4.
3.
111
completes all classwork and homework
111
always eager and interested to learn English
1111
speaks only English in class
111
often volunteers opinions and asks questions
1111
works very well in pairs and groups
111
completes most classwork and homework
111
usually eager and interested to learn English
1111
usually speaks only English in class; occasionally speaks Japanese
111
sometimes volunteers opinions and asks questions
111
works well in pairs and groups
1111
completes most classwork and homework
1111
interested, but not very eager to learn English
1111
sometimes speaks English in class, but often speaks Japanese
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
221
2.
1.
11111
occasionally volunteers opinions and asks questions
11111
works OK in pairs and groups
11111
seldom completes classwork and some homework
1111
not very interested in learning English
1111
rarely speaks English in class, usually speaks Japanese
111
rarely volunteers opinions and asks questions
111
doesn't work very well in pairs and groups
1111
almost never completes classwork and homework
111
not interested in learning English
11111
almost never speaks English in class, always Japanese
1111
never volunteers opinions and asks questions
111
doesn't work well in pairs and groups
How will you be evaluated on the above Table of Standards?
1111
This is a subjective opinion made by me.
11111
I will observe four students each day during the semester.
11111
I will observe you each four times.
1111
1111
I will randomly choose whom I observe. You will not know that I am
observing you.
If you are absent that day, you will receive a zero grade (unless you
have a doctor's certificate, etc.).
3. Teacher assessment. In class, you wrote down the following ideas about
a "good teacher." I will ask you to evaluate me on the below points during
the semester.
222 •
1111
does not get angry
111
is kind
1111
cheerful, smiling
111
tried to understand Ss (students)
1111
has a sense of humor
111
is friendly
111
corrects Ss mistakes
111
speaks English loudly and clearly
111
talks to all the students fairly
111
speaks at a natural speed
1111
has an interesting class
111
lectures are understandable
111
tries to know Ss ability
111
teaches Ss what they need most
111
is always on time
111
writes clearly on the board
111
is well prepared for class
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Sally writes about the way she negotiated the assessment plan with her students:
At the end of the second week of the semester, I led class discussions
which determined the assessment procedures for attendance, participation, and coursework. For coursework, we concentrated on how
to assess what was learned from the text and other classwork. I
explained the difference between exams and quizzes. I pointed out
that unlike assessing participation, written tests are objective, that
is, they have a correct answer. The students decided that they preferred a quiz. The students took one quiz on the coursework to aid
in the overall student assessment profile. The material for the quiz
was taken directly from class activities during the first six weeks
of the semester.
To continue the spirit of learner-centered assessment, the students
wrote the quiz themselves. First, basics of test construction were
taught (Heaton 1988), including how to write a matching item, a
true/false item, and a short-answer question. Guidelines to do this
were handed to the students and discussed in class as another learning activity. Students got into small groups to review the semester's
materials, then chose what was important and wrote items to test
knowledge in that area. Several dozen items were produced in a
short time. I chose 15 of the best items, added five of my own,
and created the quiz.
After working on oral and project assessment criteria, the last stage
of the process was to finalize the assessment framework. This included writing in how to evaluate next to each category.... I asked
students what percentage of each category should be awarded and
wrote the responses on the board. My role here was to serve
as co-ordinator and to help mediate suggestions to assure they
followed university guidelines .... Though not all students were
satisfied with the final tabulations, I felt confident that each had
participated somewhat in the process and, more importantly, understood the decisions required to create an assessment framework.
~!.!E) What do you like about Sally's assessment plan? What don't you like
about it? Why?
How would Sally answer the WH questions for assessment?
One interesting feature of Sally's assessment plan is that a careful reading of
the students' ideas about a "good teacher" under Teacher Assessment provides
insights into some of the students' affective and learning needs. The systematic
assessment of participation also provides information about students' needs that
help her to make the course more responsive to them. Sally writes:
I assessed students' class participation on a daily basis. Although
the process was laborious, the information gained was diagnostic,
and it helped to improve my teaching and the students' learning.
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
223
In the process, I observed four students each day, using the criteria
established with the students. Each student was observed four times
during the semester. After each class, I filled in a report sheet which
I gave to the individual during the next class. Over the semester,
I noticed that I became much more conscious of each student's performance in class, and, as a result, I was able to direct my teaching
more toward the students' needs. At the same time, the students
were able to receive immediate feedback on their progress in class
which enabled them to direct their learning more effectively.
Sally later taught academic writing in Australia. One place she taught was the
Centre for English Language Learning at the Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology. She co-taught an EAP class for advanced level students and was
responsible for the writing component which was designed around four written
assessment tasks. These tasks were a cause and effect essay, an argument essay,
and a group report, each on assigned topics, as well as a research essay on one's
own topic. The first time Sally taught the course, she involved her students in
designing assessment criteria for the tasks, in the form of three descriptive grading bands: 8-10, 6-8, and 5, similar to the Table of Standards in the Japanese
setting. Each band included criteria for presentation, content, form, and organization. The grading system is explained below:
Cause and Effect Essay
Discuss poverty in your own country. Focus on one major cause, eg., lack
of education, and discuss the effects.
Due: Friday, August 12
Requirements:
1111
500-700 words
1111
Double-space your text, type if possible
1111
Include two references
1111
Include a cover page and list of references
Grading:
Your essay will be graded on the following criteria that we made in class.
8-10
1111
1111
1111
224 °
The author's handwriting is clear, the author appropriately paraphrases
and references other authors' written material, the author includes a
cover page and a correctly-formatted list of references.
The author develops original ideas, offers interesting and thoughtful
opinions, incorporates appropriate materials and sources in a way that
is clear and logical.
The author's grammar, vocabulary, and use of connectives, transition
signals, and so on are accurate.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
1111
The paper is well organised witll an introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introduction provides a clear outline of the essay (a thesis statement). Each paragraph has a topic sentence. The conclusion clearly
summarises the issues and includes any relevant recommendations.
6-7
111
1111
The author's handwriting is generally clear, but sometimes difficult to
read. The author appropriately paraphrases and references most of the
ideas taken from other authors' written material. The author includes a
cover page and a list of references; however, there are a few mistakes
in the style.
The author develops some original ideas, offers some interesting and
thoughtful opinions, incorporates appropriate materials and sources in
a way that is mostly clear and logical.
111
The author's grammar, vocabulary, and use of connectives, transition
signals, and so on are good, but with some mistakes that do not
prevent communication.
11
The paper has an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction
provides an outline of the essay ( a thesis statement). Most paragraphs have a topic sentence. The conclusion summarises the issues
and includes recommendations.
5
111
The author's handwriting is not very clear and is difficult to read.
The author does not paraphrase and reference ideas taken from other
authors' written material. The author includes a cover page and a list
of references; however there are many mistakes in style.
111
The author develops few original ideas, and only offers a few interesting and thoughtful opinions; does not incorporate appropriate materials
and sources very logically.
1111
1111
The author's grammar, vocabulary, and use of connectives, transition
signals, and so on are OK, but with some mistakes that sometimes
prevent communication.
The paper has an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction
does not have an outline of the essay ( a thesis statement). Not all
paragraphs have a topic sentence. The conclusion does not clearly
summarise the issues.
Sally found, however, that the bands were problematic. She writes:
As we were grading the essays, various issues emerged. The criteria,
divided into three descriptive bands, were difficult to apply. For
example, a student met all the requirements for form, content, and
organization in the "6-7" range, but her presentation was poor.
Our dilemma was deciding whether the student's grade should be
dropped to "5." Considering the above situation, we agreed that the
descriptive bands, written as they were, were difficult to use.
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
225
Additionally, Sally administered a final course evaluation, which included 31
items that asked students to evaluate the course, the grading system, the teaching,
and themselves. (The form is in Appendix 10-3 on pages 295-297.) She comments:
Below are some views on the grading system garnered from
the survey:
1111
1111
111
37% agreed that their overall understanding of the class
assessment plan was clear from the beginning of the course
37% agreed that the grades that they received assessed their
work fairly
50% agreed that they understood their teachers' method of
grading their work.
The negative results of the survey and her experience with trying to use the
three assessment bands provided her with a basis for improving her assessment
plan in the next course she taught, which was similar to the previous one,
except that a "compare and contrast" essay replaced the "cause and effect"
essay. This time she and her co-teacher took a more systematic approach to
assessment. She writes:
Before we met with the students, we looked at the feedback from E6
(the previous class), and reviewed our own interpretations. In the
light of the previous class, we spent more time in the planning
process, and handouts were distributed to students indicating course
objectives, the assessment plan, and a list of hurdle requirements for
the written assessment tasks.
At the beginning of Week 1, I started planning how to grade the
first written assignment, the comparison and contrast essay. I
reviewed the chapter "Compare and Contrast," from the writing
text we were using in class and reviewed how a comparison and
contrast essay is organised, and what comparison and contrast
structure words and phrases are used.
She then followed a similar procedure for getting students to generate criteria
for grading the essay, except this time, rather than developing descriptive
numerical bands, they developed criteria for the categories of requirements,
form, content, and organization. She asked the students to think about their previous experience with having their essays graded as a basis for deciding what
should go in each category. She writes:
In groups of three, I assigned each group one of the four categories:
requirements, form, content, and organization. On large pieces of
butcher paper, each group listed criteria for that category. To help
the students, I referred them to their notes and handouts reviewing
what we had covered in class [about comparison and contrast
essays.] We put the completed lists on the floor, and looking at
each list, filled in what was missing, and clarified anything that
was unclear. I typed up the criteria and distributed the handouts to
the students, asking them to use the criteria as a guide to writing
their essays.
226 •
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A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The criteria were organized into categories; but instead of writing
descriptive bands, I typed up the student-developed criteria as
descriptive statements. I hoped to avoid the problem we had in the
previous course where we had difficulty assigning grades, because
the descriptions of each grade band did not accommodate those
students whose essays were in the "8-1 0" range for form, content,
and organization, but were in the "5" range for presentation."
(See Appendix 10-4, pages 298-299, for the criteria for the comparison and contrast essay.)
This time around the assessment plan was a more integral part of the course.
Students were involved in developing the assessment criteria as soon as the
course started so that it was part of the course. Students developed the criteria
based on material they had learned about that type of essay. Sally found that
some students still did not meet all the requirements. Part of this could be due to
the fact that students needed to learn how to use the criteria. In other words, if
having students generate assessment criteria is one of your course objectives,
then you need to teach them how to use the criteria as part of the syllabus.
The next essay Sally taught was the argument essay. She writes,
I had difficulty deciding on the best way to teach argument;
the information regarding this genre varies considerably. I finally
decided on a model that was adapted from two texts. By deciding
what to teach, I had a much clearer picture of what to grade.
This last statement is important for understanding the role of assessment in
course design. What you teach and what you assess each influence the other.
What you teach is the basis for what you assess. In Sally's case, how she conceptualized the argument essay-how she taught it-provided the basis for what
was assessed. Conversely, your criteria for assessment can be used as the basis
for what you will teach. Sally followed a similar process for having her students
generate assessment criteria in the four categories above. This time, all of the
essays had followed the hurdle requirements and none needed to be resubmitted. Additionally, the responses to a mid-term course evaluation were much
more positive than the previous term's class.
11
111
1111
88% agreed that they understood the assessment plan clearly;
77% agreed that the grades that they had received so far had
assessed their work fairly
77% agreed that they understood their teachers' method of
grading their work
She concludes:
The results reflect more positive percentages than those from the
previous class. This is probably due to a number of factors. First
of all, the feedback from E6 (the previous term class) prompted us
to be more organised from the beginning of the course, preparing
an assessment plan together with hurdle requirements. Secondly,
my confidence in developing the student-developed criteria
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN •
227
increased with time, and the process served to give clear guidelines
for students to follow. And lastly, the students, especially those
from the previous class, E6, were now familiar with the process
of writing an academic paper.
The criteria for the argument essay are in Appendix 10-5 on pages 300-301.
E!.!:IJ What appeals to you about Sally's approach to assessing writing? What
doesn't appeal to you? Why?
How does Sally's approach to assessing writing differ from David Thomson's
approach?
The following assessment plan is Denise Maksail-Fine's plan for her year-long
Spanish 3 class in a rural high school in upstate New York. This is the third year
of Spanish for her high school students. In addition to periodic quizzes and unit
tests, she outlines the following:
Assessment Plan
Learning Assessment Tool #1:
New York State Comprehensive Regents Examination
Denise
Maksaii-Fine
See Chapter 4,
page 61, for
Maksaii-Fine's
mind maps;
Appendix 5-2,
page242, for
her goals and
objectives;
Chapter 7,
pages 128-129,
for her course
syllabus; and
Chapter 8,
page 165, for
a unit plan.
228 °
This first assessment tool is not one of my own creation, yet it is probably
the primary tool to measure student achievement and teacher effectiveness within any given school district in New York State. The Regents
Comprehensive Examination in Spanish is a statewide, standardized exam
administered at the completion of the third full year of Spanish study, and
its successful completion is required in partial satisfaction of the NYS
Regents Diploma requirements. Students must achieve a score of 65% or
higher in order to successfully pass the exam.
It is summative in nature in that it is administered at the end of this course.
It is also a course evaluation tool because, by doing an item analysis of
the exam after it is administered, I will be able to ascertain in which areas
my students' strengths and weaknesses lay and adjust my curriculum
planning for the following year accordingly. It also provides me with an idea
of my students' achievement in relation to their peers statewide, which is
one of the realities of teaching in a public school district in New York State.
The examination is divided into four sections, each section testing one of
the four skills. Part I tests the student's ability to speak in the target language. Within a specified time frame before the examination date, Part 1
is individually administered to students by me. It is similar to the ACTFL
Oral Proficiency Interview.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
The other three sections of the exam are administered statewide on a
designated date. Part 2 tests students' listening comprehension. Part 3
assesses reading comprehension and Part 4 assesses writing. Although 1
have my own personal misgivings about some of the content that appears
on the exam, I believe it is a fairly accurate measure of the four skills
when viewed within the context of standardized testing in general.
Assessment Tool #2: Portfolios
A portfolio provides a different form of both student assessment and
program evaluation from the Regents exam. The Regents exam provides
an external, standardized measure of the Spanish 3 course in relation to
other programs statewide. While such exams are often an integral part of
public school instruction, my personal belief is that they also often heavily
emphasize product and form. I feel that it is necessary to provide students
with an alternative form of assessment that offsets the stress on form
and product by designing an assessment tool that emphasizes process,
creativity, and reflection.
Although at the time of this writing I am unsure as to what, specifically,
I want the portfolios to contain, I envision them as a tool that documents
individual student progress in the areas of the four skills as well as cultural awareness. I have built time into the syllabus (week 34) for portfolio
presentations. I would like the students to invite their parents in and
present their work to them. This is because I believe that it is important
for parents to see exactly what their children have been doing throughout
the year and for students to have ownership over their progress.
I see this tool as mainly summative in nature. My hope is that it will assist
my students and me in determining how, exactly, students have been working toward the course goals and objectives, and, therefore, provide insight
into how the program may need to be modified in the future to better meet
those goals and objectives.
Assessment Tool #3: Situational Role Plays
Speaking can often be very stressful for the students I teach, especially
if they know they are being assessed in some way. I try to counteract this
in a few different ways. First, I have them speak as much as possible,
even when they are not being assessed. I have found that this eventually
assists students in becoming more spontaneous with their speech.
Second, I try to have students do different role-play activities in order
to prepare them for the speaking situations that they will face on their
exam at the end of the year. The variations can include: working with each
other, with puppets, or with me; prepared presentations or impromptu
performances; etc. Third, instead of creating the rubric for assessment
myself, I often take class time to create one with students for use throughout the year. Not only do they create the criteria, they also vote on the
final rubric as a class. I have found that by assessing them in this way,
there is much less cause for complaint, whining, accusations of unfairness, or claims of ignorance. The following rubric is an example created
by a former Spanish 3 class:
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
229
Sample Role-play Rubric:
Pronunciation
Presentation
Content
0 fails to communicate
fails to communicate
fails to communicate
1 barely comprehensible
no eye contact;
inaudible at times;
uses some English
some incomplete and/or
inaccurate information;
repetitive vocabulary
2 sometimes exhibits
minimal eye contact;
adequate pronunciation voice is monotone
adequate information;
little variety of vocabulary
3 demonstrates correct
pronunciation most
of the time
occasional eye contact;
adequate voice tone
and volume
appropriate information
and variety of vocabulary
most of the time
4 consistently accurate
pronunciation
consistently makes eye
contact; effective use of
voice tone and volume
precise, detailed, accurate
information; wide variety
of vocabulary
Course Evaluation Tool #1: Student Feedback Questionnaire
This evaluation tool is an end-of-unit questionnaire that will be administered in
class to each student at the end of each unit.
This tool will be formative in that it will be an ongoing, periodic evaluation of the
individual units that will assist me in modifying future units based on the feedback that I receive from students, so that the remainder of the course is tailored
to their needs and expectations.
It will also be summative in nature in that it will provide me with an overall view
of the progression of the course from beginning to end as perceived by my
students. This will provide me with some of the documentation that I will need
in order to reflect on the year as a whole and decide which changes I wish to
implement for the upcoming year with the intent of making the program more
effective in meeting my (and the school district's) goals and objectives. This
also includes re-evaluating the goals and objectives themselves to decide
whether or not they are actually appropriate and realistic for the students.
Sample Questionnaire:
Name: _________________
Unit: _________________
1. What activity or activities did you find most worthwhile in this unit?
What was it specifically that made them worthwhile?
2. What activity or activities did you find least worthwhile in this unit? What
was' it specifically that made them less worthwhile than the other activities?
3. What specifically would you suggest to improve the activities that you
listed in #2?
230 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
flelm What do you like about Denise Maksail-Fine's assessment plan? What
don't you like? Why?
Which parts of the plan assess students' needs? Which parts of the plan assess
students' learning? Which parts evaluate the effectiveness of the course?
The last assessment plan we. will look at is Mary Patten's plan for assessing
her students' learning with respect to a unit from the textbook she is teaching.
The course takes place at a language institute in Rabat, Morocco. The students
are at an intermediate level. There is an end of term exam, which is prepared by
the institute. We read about Mary's approach to textbook adaptation in Chapter
9 in which she describes adding two areas to the syllabus: a culture focus and a
group dynamics focus (see pages 197-199). The following quiz is for the unit
she described in chapter 9, whose theme was Women and Men.
Intermediate 1: Unit 2 Quiz
Name: _ _ _ __
Theme: Women and Men
I. Write five sentences about things you have learned regarding the
theme of this unit.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
II. Complete the following paragraph with the correct forms of the verbs
in parentheses.
Roger only works part-time now, but he __ (have+be) in the restaurant
business for more than 40 years. He __ (start) his first restaurant
almost as a hobby. He is almost 70 years old, but still __ (go) to
work every day. These days he __ {talk) about retiring, but he's afraid
he's going to be bored. He __ (be+look) forward to taking a vacation
next month, because he __ (miss) his grandchildren who live far
away. Roger _ _ {wish) he could see them more often, but he doesn't
want to move. Roger_ _ (like) his town, and the friends he _ _
(have+make) over the years.
Ill. Express your opinion about someone you admire or someone you do
not admire. Then write a few sentences which explain your opinion.
IV. List four classroom roles.
1.
2.
3
4.
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
231
Mary writes about the quizzes she prepared:
The purposes of the quizzes were manifold. One reason was to
provide the students with test-like procedures and formats, which
were reflective of the final exit text at the end of the course.
Another reason was to help the students track their own progress
with the material that was being covered in class, as they would be
tested on it in the final test. The quizzes were not graded, but served
to provide me with additional information as to their test taking
skills and their progress with the material, at least in written form.
The quizzes allowed me to note individual and group problem
areas, and to plan for more review in those areas. They also served
as review sheets for the students.
Mary Patten
The students were a little wary of the first quiz, but once they
realized my objectives in giving it, and saw that it was not going to
be graded but instead was meant to be used as a learning tool, they
became excited about taking the quizzes and trying to do their best.
One day, an activity went overtime and we didn't have enough time
left for the quiz so I told them we would have to wait until the next
class to do it. Several of the students started whining and talking
about how they were ready to take it then, and really wanted to do
it even though they would have to stay late to finish it! However,
the businessmen said they couldn't stay, so the class decided to take
it during the next class. It was really amazing to see them get so
emotional about the quiz-in such a positive way!
The unit quizzes were only one means of evaluation used in the
course. I often did more informal types of formative evaluation in
which I tried to obtain information not only on how students were
doing with the required technical aspects of the course, but what
they were feeling and thinking about the learning process and the
course itself. Interviews, both formal and informal, general and specific opportunities for oral and written feedback, and careful observation of student interactions and body language in class provided a
lot of useful information, and certainly helped me try to evaluate
how my course was going.
u.11.
I
j
II
il
l:
f(•fO What do you like about Mary's approach to the quizzes? What don't
you like?
What kind of information does the quiz on page 231 give Mary about her
students' learning? How does the quiz reflect her addition of a group dynamics
and an explicit cultural focus to the syllabus?
T
o summarize, your assessment plan should allow you to assess students'
needs, to assess their learning, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the course.
It should include formative assessment activities so that you can adjust the course
as you teach it, and provide summative information so that you can look back
232 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
retrospectively in order to redesign it. How you answer the WH questions of
who, what, when, how, and why will depend on your context and its requirements, on what you consider important, and on your students. David Thomson's,
Sally Cavanaugh's, Denise Maksail-Fine's and Mary Patten's assessment plans
reflect the demands of their context and their beliefs and understandings about
how students learn, how their learning should be assessed, and how the course
should address their learning needs. Your assessment plan will reflect the uniqueness of your institutional and sociocultural context, your students, and your
beliefs and understandings about language, learning, and teaching.
f(•if) Draw up an assessment plan for your course using the guidelines in
the chapter.
Discuss your plan with a colleague. As you discuss it, note areas that aren't
clear, as well as activities that can be used for more than one assessment purpose.
The last investigation of the book is one that I learned from Barbara
Fujiwara, a friend and colleague in Japan (see Fujiwara 1996). It is a letter to the
students about the course. The letter, in fact, usually conveys more than information about assessment. It can include information about the content and
organization of the course, its goals and objectives, the roles of teacher and
learners, and the teacher's hopes and expectations for the course. Writing to
your students requires clarity about the course and clear language to describe it.
It also allows you to give a snapshot of the course, to emphasize what you feel is
important, and to set a tone for the course. In some cases, teachers have included the voices or advice of former students in the letter.
·
fl•i!@J
Read David Thomson's letter to his class (below). Which parts of the
letter provide information about: assessment? goals and objectives? course content? the way the course is organized? roles of teachers and learners?
Write a letter to your students explaining to them the purposes of the course
and how they will be assessed.
If you would like to broaden the scope of the letter, you can include any other
information about the course you feel would be useful to your students.
David Thomson wrote the following letter to his students about his course:
Dear Student:
Greetings and welcome to: "Writing: Using Computers."
I'm happy you chose this course and look forward to working
with you throughout your stay at ISE Vermont. My goal is to help
you find ways to improve your writing and also show you how to
use the computer for a variety of writing purposes. "Writing: Using
Computers" is a new course and I want to make it a success for
each of us.
David Thomson
DESIGNING AN AsSESSMENT PLAN "
233
I'm sure some of you are a little concerned because you've never
used a computer before. Please don't worry. We'll start right after
this term begins and I think you'll be surprised at how easy they are
to use. Those of you who already have some computer skills understand that the best way to learn to operate a computer is to just sit
down and do it! I would like to ask those of you who already have
good computer skills to work with your classmates who are new to
them and help them get started.
By the end of the course each of you will have a good understanding
of computers. You'll be able to use the keyboard and a variety of
word processing tools and functions. You will have selected e-mail
partners (keypals) and corresponded with them. I think you are
going to like meeting new friends from around the world and will
be able to learn a lot about them, their countries, and their ESL
experiences. I also think you're going to like using the Internet and
will find many interesting and fun sites on it. I want you to be able
to learn things about computers that you can take with you when
you leave here and use in your job or at school or maybe at home.
We're going to do a lot of writing in this class. You've chosen to
be here, which says to me that you're interested in writing, and
I'm going to do everything I can to help you. I'm going to help you
directly by reviewing your writing and offering suggestions for ways
to improve it. But-and this might be more important-! also want
you to find ways to be the best judge of your writing. I want you
to develop skills and strategies that will help you get started writing,
help you while you're writing, and help you edit your writing. I
want you to become aware of what you're doing well and of the
areas in which you need improvement.
IIIII
l!lh
:11.
:1/i
One of the ways you're going to develop an awareness of your
writing is through using "portfolios." I won't try to tell you about
them now-we'll talk about them in depth on the first day of
class-but I do want you to go to the bookstore and buy a file
folder for the portfolio. (You can find them with the supplies.)
·1:1:
1!,
Iii,,:
il :
We're going to be doing a lot of writing and we'll start by writing
a couple of paragraphs. We will work together as a class to write
these paragraphs. I want you to learn to work closely with other
students, and I want you to see how important it is to have someone else to talk to about your writing.
As I mentioned earlier, you're going to find keypals and write to
them on a regular basis. Using e-mail, you and I will also communicate on a regular basis through a dialogue journal. I'll let you decide
what topics to discuss in these journals. The final assignment-the
big one for this course-is a research project. For this, you'll choose
a topic that is of interest to you and then go to the Internet and find
at least three sources from which to get information about your
topic. I want you to enjoy this assignment and encourage you to
start thinking now about what you would like to research.
234 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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I'm sure you have lots of questions. If you can't wait until the first
day of class you can stop by my office and see me. If you want to
use e-mail, you can reach me at
. I'm really excited about
this term and I hope you are, too. I'm looking forward to seeing you
in class!
See you soon,
David Thomson
To close this chapter and the book, I'd like to return to some of the ideas in
the beginning of Chapter 1. The first investigation in the book asked you to
complete the sentence "Designing a language course involves ... " I said that the
way I would complete the sentence was both assured, because of what I know
about course design, and tentative, because I feel that there are many ways to
arrive at an answer. I hope that you have affirmed, challenged, and expanded
your own answer as you read about the ways the teachers in the book
approached the design of their courses, and that your own approach to course
design is more assured, while leaving room for flexibility as you approach each
new group of students.
Suggested Readings
As I have made clear in the chapter, I would go out and buy Kathi Bailey's book
in this series, Learning about Language Assessment: Dilemmas, Decisions, and
Directions (1998). She writes in an engaging and accessible style about a subject
that intimidates many teachers. She, in turn, provides ideas for further reading.
I also like New Ways of Classroom Assessment (1998), edited by J. D. Brown
and published by TESOL, because it contains over a hundred activities developed by teachers to assess their students' learning.
With respect to course evaluation, "Planning an Advanced Listening Comprehension Elective for Japanese College Students" by Barbara Fujiwara (1996)
includes her midterm evaluation and her thoughts on her students' responses, as
well as her end-of-course evaluation. It also includes her pre-course letter to her
students, which I have since added to my own repertoire of curriculum products.
DESIGNING AN ASSESSMENT PLAN "
235
Appendix
(There are no appendix entries for Chapters 1-4.)
CHAPTER FIVE
5-1
Goals and objectives for David Thomson's 4-week course,
"Teaching Writing Using Computers." (See pages 80, 84.) ...... . 239
5-2 Goals and objectives for Denise Maksail-Fine's 36-week
Spanish 3 course. (See pages 82, 91.) ...................... .242
5-3 Goals and objectives for Denise Lawson's 10-week advanced
composition course. (See pages 81, 93.) .................... .244
CHAPTER SIX
6-1 Denise Lawson's "Letter to Students" in her advanced
composition course. (See page 107.) ....................... .24 7
6-2 Chris Conley's "Find Someone Who . .. "needs assessment
activity for intermediate adult learners. (See page 108 .) ........ .249
6-3 Chris Conley's "Letter of Explanation" used as part of
needs assessment for intermediate adult learners. (See page 109.) .. 250
6-4 Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig's Learning Style Survey. (See page 116.) .. .251
CHAPTER SEVEN
7-1
Course syllabus for Denise Maksail-Fine's 36-week Spanish 3
course. (See page 129.) .................................. 252
7-2 Course syllabus for Valarie Barnes' 4-week holiday course
for young adults. (See page 134.) ......................... . 133
7-3 Course syllabus for Toby Brody's 8-week integrated skills
course, "The Newspaper." (See page 132.) .................. . 132
7-4 Goals and objectives for Brooke Palmer's 12-week ESP
course for science professionals. (See page 140.) ............... 260
7-5 Focus wheel blank matrix form. (See page 143.) ............... 261
7-6 First unit grid for Dylan Bates' course for Chinese
university students. (See page 146.) ........................ 262
7-7 Revised unit grid for Dylan Bates' course. (See page 147.) ...... .263
CHAPTER EIGHT
8-1 Sound Ideas (See pages 158-160.) ........................ .264
8-2 Handout on clarifying and paraphrasing (Monday, II) for
Cyndy Thatcher- Fettig's speaking and listening course.
(See page 158.) ........................................ 267
APPENDIX: CONTENTS •
237
8-3 Blanl< handout for practical situations (Wednesday, II)
for Cyndy Thatcher- Fettig's speaking and listening course.
(See page 159.) ....................................... .268
8-4 Example materials for Cyndy Thatcher- Fettig's speaking and
listening course: simulation roles, role-play cards, situations
(Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). (See pages 159-160.) ............. 269
8-5 Handout for practical situations: getting information on the
phone (Friday, II). For Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig's speaking and
listening course. (See page 160.) ...........................2 70
8-6 Goals and partial objectives for Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig's
speaking and listening course. (See pages 160.) ............... .271
8-7 Example letters for Chris Conley's course for adult
immigrants. (See pages 161-163.) ......................... .272
CHAPTER NINE
9-1 Two pages from Unit 13 oflntercom 2000 Book I.
(See pages 189.) .......................................275
Ill
9-2 Introductory pages preceding Unit I of East West Basics
(See page 193.) ........................................276
,!!
9-3 Unit I of East West Basics (See pages 193-196.) ...............277
II
~I
'
9-4 Unit 6 ofNew Interchange 3 (See page 196.) ................ .281
I'
·I
9-5 Mary Patten's mind map for Crosscurrents 2, Unit 2.
(See page 200.) ....................................... .286
Ill
9-6 Mary Patten's notes on page 1 of Unit 2 of Crosscurrents 2.
(See page 200.) ....................................... .287
~~
I'
i!f
9-7 Mary Patten's sequence for Unit 2 of Crosscurrents 2.
(See page 200.) ....................................... .288
ll1
CHAPTER TEN
10-1 Error correction symbols handout for David Thomson's
"Teaching Writing Using Computers" course. (See page 217.) ... .290
10-2 Self-rating forms for David Thomson's "Teaching Writing
Using Computers" course. (See page 217.) .................. .291
10-3 End of course evaluation form for Sally Cavanaugh's EAP
writing course. (See page 226.) ........................... .295
10-4 Criteria for comparison and contrast essay in Sally Cavanaugh's
EAP writing course. (See page 227.) ....................... .298
1 0-5 Criteria for argument essay in Sally Cavanaugh's EAP writing
course. (See page 228.) ................................. .300
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DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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Chapter Five
Ell Goals and objectives for David Thomson's 4-week course, "Teaching
Writing Using Computers" for high intermediate students in an intensive
English program in the United States. (See pages 80, 84.)
AWARENESS
Goal1. By the end of the course, students will have become more aware of their
writing in general and be able to identify the specific areas in which improvement is needed.
Objective 1a. Each student will maintain a portfolio which will
include his/her personal goals and objectives, self-assessments, teacher
assessments, reflective writings, and all writing done by him/her during the course.
Objective 1b. Students will be able to use the ACTFL scale to rate
their own writing level.
Objective 1c. Students will be able to write reflectively about their
sense of their writing ability and level, what they have been learning,
and their feelings about writing.
Objective 1d. Students will learn how to work in pairs and small
groups to learn to give and receive feedback on writing.
Objective 1e. Teacher will provide students with guidelines and tools
to assess their writing and will work closely with students to apprise
them of their progress in general and of specific areas needing
improvement.
Objective 1{. Students will use teacher-provided tools to assess
their writing.
TEACHER
Goal 2. Throughout the course, teacher will clearly communicate to students
what his standards are for successful completion of tasks.
Objective 2a. Teacher will give students straightforward instructions
and feedback during all stages of assignments.
Objective 2b. Teacher will adjust the pace of the class and his level of
involvement consistent with the needs of the students.
Objective 2c. Teacher will review students' work on an ongoing basis
and help them develop ways to review and revise on their own.
Objective 2d. Teacher will work closely with students to facilitate
their awareness of the writing process.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER FIVE "
239
Goal 3. By the end of the course, the teacher will have developed a greater
understanding of student needs and will make adjustments to ensure these needs
can be met in the next (following) course.
Objective 3a. Teacher will conduct action research and will maintain
a personal journal throughout the course.
Objective 3b. Teacher will maintain a dialogue with students
throughout the course.
ATTITUDE
Goal4. By the end of the course, students will have developed a positive attitude
toward writing.
Objective 4a. Students will become more confident in their ability to
write by developing and improving writing skills and strategies.
Objective 4b. Students will recognize that writing to a "keypal" in a
foreign country is engaging and can be entertaining.
Objective 4c. Students will realize a greater sense of self-understanding and increased self-esteem by expressing themselves creatively and
critically in purposeful writing tasks.
SKILLS
Goal 5. By the end of the course, students will have developed the ability to use
the computer for a variety of purposes.
Objective Sa. Students will be able to efficiently use keyboard
functions and word processing tools/functions.
Objective Sb. Students will be able to communicate via e-mail with
other students in the class and with ESL students in other geographic
areas.
Objective Sc. Students will be able to use the Internet to find
information.
Objective Sd. Students will be able to make use of a variety of
functions that enable them to use the Internet for an assortment of
purposes.
Objective Se. Students will acquire computer skills they can transfer
to and use in other areas of their life (i.e., work, school, personal).
240 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
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Goal 6. By the end of the course, students will improve their writing to the next
level on the ACTFL Proficiency Guideline's writing scale.
Objective 6a. Students will develop strategies to help them get
started writing.
Objective 6b. Students will develop better language resources (i.e.,
vocabulary, syntax, grammar, etc.) so they can focus on conveying
meaning rather than form when they write.
Objective 6c. Students will develop a set of writing skills and have
strategies for knowing when and how to use them.
Objective 6d. Students will be able to write single paragraph and
multi-paragraph compositions that show a good understanding of
underlying organization.
Objective 6e. Students will know how to use appropriate review
techniques to correct composing problems.
KNOWLEDGE
Goal 7. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand the elements of and what constitutes "good writing."
Objective 7a. Students will have an overall understanding of the
ACTFL rating system.
Objective 7b. Students will be able to determine which ACTFL level
most appropriately describes their level.
Objective 7c. Students will have sufficient knowledge of their writing
to be able to determine when their writing is good and when it needs
further work.
Goal 8. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand the appropriateness of using computers for different writing and research purposes.
Objective 8a. Students will know when and why to use the different
computer functions.
Objective 8b. Students will know how and when to use the Internet
to find information.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER FIVE '"
241
Goals and objectives for Denise Maksail-Fine's year-long (36-week) third
year high school Spanish course in the United States. (See pages 82, 91.)
NYS LOTE (language other than English) Standard 1: Students will
be able to use a language other than English for communication.
NYS LOTE Standard 2: Students will develop cross-cultural skills
and understandings.
Goal1. Students will be able to utilize the skills of listening and speaking for the
purposes of: socializing, providing and obtaining information, expressing personal feelings and opinions, persuading others to adopt a course of action, in the
targeted topic'' areas.
Objectives'''' Students will be able to:
1.1 comprehend messages and short conversations when listening to
peers, familiar adults, and providers of public services in face-to-face
interactions.
1.2 understand the main idea and some discrete information in
television, radio, or live presentations.
1.3 initiate and sustain conversations, face-to-face, with native
speakers or more fluent individuals.
1.4 select vocabulary appropriate to a range of topics, employing
simple and complex sentences in present, past, or future time frames,
and expressing details and nuances by using appropriate modifiers.
1.5 exhibit spontaneity in their interactions, particularly when the
topic is familiar, but often relying on familiar utterances.
Goal2. Students will be able to utilize the skills of reading and writing for the
purposes of: socializing, providing and obtaining information, expressing personal feelings and opinions, persuading others to adopt a course of action, in the
targeted topic'' areas.
Objectives'"' Students will be able to:
2.1 read and comprehend materials written for native speakers when
the topic and language are familiar.
2.2 read simple materials independently, but may have to guess at
meanings of longer or more complex material.
2.3 write short notes, uncomplicated personal and business letters,
brief journals, and short reports.
2.4 write brief analyses of more complex content when given the
opportunity for organization and advance preparation, though errors
may occur more frequently.
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2.5 produce written narratives and expressions of opinion about
radio and television programs, newspaper and magazine articles and
selected stories, songs, and literature of the target language.
'
Goal3. Students will develop cross-cultural skills and understandings of perceptions, gestures, folklore, and family and community dynamics.
Objectives'''' Students will be able to:
3.1 demonstrate an awareness of their own native culture and
identify specific cultural traits.
3.2 exhibit comprehensive knowledge of cultural traits and patterns.
3.3 draw comparisons between societies.
3.4 demonstrate an understanding that there are important
linguistic and cultural variations among groups that speak the
same target language.
3.5 understand how words, body language, rituals, and social
interactions influence communication.
Goal 4. Students will develop skills that enable them to work together
cooperatively.
Objectives•H> Students will be able to:
4.1 demonstrate the ability to listen actively to speakers within
the classroom setting.
4.2 restate and summarize material for the benefit of classmates
4.3 demonstrate the ability to provide others with constructive
feedback
4.4 identify traits of appropriate and inappropriate classroom
interactions and possible consequences.
4.5 develop an awareness and repertoire of language learning
strategies.
* targeted topic areas: personal identification, house/home, services/repairs,
family life, community and neighborhood, physical environment, mea/taking,
health/welfare, education, earning a living, leisure, public and private services,
shopping, travel, current events.
'' '' criterion: student-produced written work and spoken utterances must be
of the level that they can be understood by a native speaker of the L2, who speaks
no English but is used to dealing with non-native L2 speakers and writers.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER FIVE "
243
mJ Goals and objectives for Denise Lawson's 10-week advanced composition
course. (See pages 81, 93.)
I.
PROFICIENCY.
Students will develop effective writing skills transferable to any context.
Activity
1111 Students will use a five-step process writing model to write
three paragraphs: descriptive, personal narrative (memory),
and expository; two essays; and a group research paper.
1111
1111
Students will use assessment forms to evaluate their own and
their peers' writing.
Students will annotate their reading and maintain reading logs.
Involvement
Students will develop criteria for a well-written paragraph, essay, and
short research paper.
1111
Students will work with peers to generate ideas, get feedback,
and to write a research paper.
Mastery
IIIII Students will be able to use a process writing model.
Ill
Students will be able to assess writing (their own and others')
based on criteria for good writing.
Critical thinking
Ill Students will be able to determine and articulate characteristics
of a well-written paragraph, essay, and short research paper.
II.
COGNITIVE
Students will gain an awareness of the influence of sociocultural issues on
their writing.
Activity
11111
Students will read Fan Shen essay "The Classroom and the Wider
Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition."
Involvement
IIIII Students will brainstorm issues which may affect their experience
writing in English.
IIIII
244 •
Students will reflect in their daybooks and interview each other
regarding their experiences writing in English.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Mastery/Critical thinking
IIIII
III.
Students will be able to write short reflections regarding the
sociocultural issues that affect their writing and their response
to these issues.
AFFECTIVE
Students will develop confidence in their ability to write in English.
Students will develop an appreciation for the contribution their knowledge and
experience (and that of their peers) make to the learning process.
Activity
IIIII
111111
1111
Students will compose "authority" lists (topics on which they
have some knowledge or expertise)
Students will document their strengths as writers, highlighting
areas in which they can serve as "teachers" to other students.
Students will use assessment forms to evaluate their own and
their peers' writing.
Involvement
1111
Ill
Students will discuss their authority lists and writing strengths
with peers, forming writing groups with complementary abilities.
Students will practice giving and receiving feedback on their writing, discussing with peers kinds of feedback which are/are not
helpful.
Mastery
IIIII
Students will be able to write narrative assessments of their own
and their peers' writing.
Critical thinking
1111
1!111
IV.
Students will be able to articulate particular areas of knowledge
and experience, and how they can draw on these strengths to
improve their writing.
Students will be able to articulate how they can use feedback
from their peers to improve their writing.
TRANSFER
Students will gain an understanding of how they can continue to improve their
writing skills.
Activity
1111
Students will maintain a daybook in which they record their
writing history, explore their attitudes toward writing, take notes
on strategies for improvement, and track their progress.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER FIVE •
245
Involvement
II
On an ongoing basis, students will brainstorm ideas regarding
strategies for improving writing skills, and will share and discuss
their daybook entries with their peers.
Mastery
II
Students will develop an awareness of the importance of becoming managers of their own learning.
II
Students will learn how to use self-reflection and consultation
with others as tools to improve their learning.
Critical thinking
II
246 •
Students will be able to describe their current strengths as
writers and what they need to do to continue improving their
writing skills.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Chapter Six
mJ Denise Lawson's "Letter to Students" in her advanced composition
course. (See page 107.)
Welcome to the advanced writing course!
I am looking forward to working together during the next ten weeks. 1
would like to outline my design for the course, and extend an invitation to
you to offer feedback so that the course will be relevant to your needs and
interests. In addition, I will describe the writing process we will use and
introduce my goal of creating a community of writers.
Course Design
My responsibility: I have attached a course syllabus which describes the
goals and objectives, assignments, schedule, and methods of assessment.
Your responsibility: The syllabus is an outline; you will have an opportunity
to shape the course in a number of ways. For example, you will set goals
and objectives for your own learning, and will reflect on your progress in a
daybook. In addition, you will select what you write (topic), and-with your
peers-determine the criteria by which your writing will be evaluated.
Feedback
My responsibility: Communication will be an important part of our work
together. I encourage you to give feedback throughout the course, and I will
provide a variety of ways for you to do this, including in-class discussion,
feedback cards, and brief questionnaires. I will respond to your comments.
Your responsibility: Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the
course at any time. Part of taking charge of your own learning involves
noticing what takes place in the course, observing your response to it,
arid letting me know what aspects of the course are most and least useful
for you. If you do not have experience engaging in this kind of reflection,
don't worry: we will discuss how to do this in class.
Writing Process
We are all accustomed to looking at final drafts: books, newspapers, and
research papers are some examples. Final drafts look polished, with ideas
clearly and logically presented, and without any grammatical or spelling
errors. However, we are not accustomed to looking at rough drafts-the
writing that preceded these seamless, published versions.
In this class we will examine the process of writing by looking at each
other's drafts-in-progress. We will break down the process of composing
a final draft into five steps. (You may not use all of the steps in each of
your writing assignments-now or in the future-but you will learn how to
use the steps and will determine which ones are most productive for you.)
APPENDIX: CHAPTER SIX "
247
Community of Writers
By now, you have completed your first writing assignment of the course
(five minute freewrite); by definition, you are a writer. Together we form a
community of writers. Each of us has different experiences, backgrounds,
strengths, and points of view. This class provides an opportunity to share
our commonalities and differences, and to learn from and with each other.
You will have an opportunity to work together as a whole group, in small
groups, and in pairs. I encourage you to participate fully in class, and to
form writing groups outside of class as well. The more you contribute the
more you will learn.
248 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
E
Chris Conley's "Find Someone Who . .. "needs assessment activity for
intermediate adult learners in a community adult education program in
the United States. (See page 108.)
Find Someone Who
Ask other students the questions. When someone says "Yes," write his or
her name on the line. Use a name only once. Good luck!
Name
1 .... plays a musical instrument.
Question: Do you play ................................ ? _ _ _ __
2 .... likes spicy food.
Question: Do you like ................................. ? _ _ _ __
3 .... lived in a small town.
Question: Did you ................................... ? _ _ _ __
4 .... felt angry recently.
Question: Did you ................................... ? _ _ _ __
5 .... can cook well.
Question: Can you
.................................. ? _ _ _ __
6 .... can use a computer.
Question: Can
..................................... ? _ _ _ __
7 .... is happy today.
Question: Are you ................................... ?
8 .... is not younger than 25.
Question: Are you ................................... ? _ _ _ __
9 .... was in Boston last week.
Question: Were you .................................. ? _ _ _ __
10 .... was sick last week.
Question: ......................................... ? _ _ _ __
11 .... has learned a new skill recently.
Question: Have you .................................. ? _ _ _ __
12 .... had a scary dream recently.
Question: Did you have ............................... ? _ _ _ __
13 .... has an interesting job.
Question: ......................................... ? _ _ _ __
14.... enjoys working alone.
Question: ......................................... ? _ _ _ __
15. Write your own question.
Question: ......................................... ? _ _ _ __
APPENDIX: CHAPTER SIX •
249
Ill Chris Conley's "Letter of Explanation" as part of needs assessment for
intermediate adult learners in community adult education programs in
the United States. (See page 1 09 .)
Dear Students,
Welcome to our class! It is nice to see that you are here and that you wish
to study English. I would like to explain to you about our class.
Our class is going to study the English language and American culture.
We will study about topics and issues that are around us, like our families,
our feelings, and how we came to this city. We will study issues in English
by using our skills in speaking, writing, reading, and listening.
You have many important roles to play in our class. First, you are a
representative of your community and country. It is one goal of our course
for you to tell us about your country and its culture. Second, you also will
be a researcher of your life and your community. It is important to learn
about yourself and to tell the members of our class what you know. Third,
I hope that you will feel free to tell our class what you need and want to
learn. I also hope that you will report to our class about what you like or
do not like about our studying. Fourth, in our class we will study about
topics and issues around us. It will be necessary for us to not only study
these issues but also to make a plan of action to attempt to change these
issues. With our class, we have the power to influence other people in
order to make our community a nicer place to live.
My role will be to provide you with choices. I will give you many options
on how to study, options on what to study, and options on how to make
a plan of action. I will assist you in your studies of English and American
culture so that you learn what you need or want to learn. I will give you
information (feedback) on your studying when you want me to do so. I
hope that I will be a good resource for you as you study and learn English
and the community around you.
I hope that you will see that we are all teachers and learners. I can teach
you something about my culture and language, and I know that you can
teach me something about your culture and language. I am very excited
about our class. If you have any questions, please ask them to me anytime. I enjoy talking to you and answering your questions.
Sincerely,
Chris Conley
250 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
11!1 Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig's Learning Style Survey. (See page 116.)
learning Style Survey
This survey is to help you and your teacher understand the way you usually
like to work on assignments, projects, and activities in class. Please read
each statement and decide whether you agree or disagree with each statement, then give a reason for your answer.
1. I enjoy having opportunities to share opinions, experiences, compare
answers, and solve problems with classmates.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
2. I like to work with a partner or a small group. I feel that I learn more
and I do a better job on the project.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
3. When I work by myself in class I think that I do a better job.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
4. When I work by myself in class I often feel bored or frustrated.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
5. I prefer working with a single partner than with a large group.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
6. I feel more comfortable working in groups when I can choose the group
members.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
7. I like it when the teacher decides who I will work with.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
8. I prefer to work in a mixed level group.
Agree
Disagree
Why? __________________________________________
9. I like to work in a group when the teacher assigns roles to the group.
Agree
Disagree
Why? ________________________________________
10. I like it when the teacher allows the students to think of the topics and
questions for discussion.
Agree
Disagree
Why? ________________________________________
APPENDIX: CHAPTER SIX •
251
Chapter Seven
1&11 Course syllabus for Denise Maksail-Fine's year-long (36-week) third year
Spanish course in the United States. (See page 129.)
Week 1: Personal Identification
Biographical Data
(Sept)
Introductions, Greetings, Leavetaking, Common Courtesy
Review: Present tense verbs
Week 2: Personal Identification
(Sept)
Physical Characteristics,
Psychological Characteristics
Review: Present tense verbs
Week 3: Family Life
Family Members
(Sept)
Family Activities
Cultural Awareness: Dia de Independencia (Mexico)
Review: Noun-adjective agreement, articles
Week4: Family Life
Roles and Responsibilities
(Sept)
Cultural Awareness: Hispanic vs. U.S.A. Families
Review: Noun-adjective agreement, articles
Week 5: House and Home
(Oct)
Types of Lodging
Review: Prepositions
Week 6: House and Home
(Oct)
Rooms, Furnishing, Appliances
Review: Prepositions
Week 7: House and Home
(Oct)
Routine Household Chores
Housing in Latin America
Cultural Awareness: Dia de Ia Raza
Review: Imperative
Week 8: Services and Repairs
(Oct)
Repairs of Household Goods
Review: Prepositions
252
° DESIGNING
LANGUAGE CoURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Week 9: Community and Neighborhood
(Nov)
Local Stores, Facilities
Recreational Opportunities
Cultural Awareness: Dia de los Muertos
Review: Imperative
Week 10: Private and Public Services
(Nov)
Communications: Telephone, Mail, E-mail
Review: Imperative
Week 11: Private and Public Services
(Nov)
Government Agencies: Post Office, Customs, Police, Embassies
Review: Imperative
Week 12: Private and Public Services
(Nov)
Finances: Banks, Currency Exchange
Week 13: Shopping
(Dec)
Shopping Facilities and Goods
Review: Subjunctive, Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns
Week 14: Shopping
Shopping Patterns: Hours, Ordinary Purchases, Modes of Payment,
(Dec)
Measurements and Sizes
Cultural Awareness: Las Posadas, Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe
Review: Subjunctive, Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns
Week 15: Shopping
Information: Prices, Advertisements, Labels
(Dec)
Cultural Awareness: La Navidad, Dia de los Inocentes
Review: Subjunctive, Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns
Week 16: Mealtaking
Types of Food and Drink
(Jan)
Cultural Awareness: Ano Nuevo
Review: Preterite
Week 17: Mealtaking
Types of Food and Drink
(Jan)
Cultural Awareness: Los Reyes Magos
Review: Preterite
Week 18: Mealtaking
Mealtime Interaction
(Jan)
Eating Out
Cultural Awareness: Platos Tipicos
Review: Preterite
APPENDIX: CHAPTER SEVEN "
253
Week 19: Leisure
(Jan)
Leisure Activities: Sports
Cultural Awareness: ]ai Alai, Futbol, Corrida de Taros
Review: Imperfect
Week 20: Leisure
Leisure Activities: Music, Hobbies, Media
(Feb)
Cultural Awareness: Dia de Ia Constituci6n (Mexico)
Review: Preterite vs. Imperfect
Week21: Leisure
Special Occasions: Traditions, Customs
(Feb)
Cultural Awareness: Dia de Ia Bandera (Mexico),
Dia del Santo, Quinceaizera
Review: Preterite vs. Imperfect
Week 22: Education
(Feb)
Secondary and Post-Secondary School Organization:
School Types, Programs, Subjects, Schedules
Cultural Awareness: Carnival, Cuaresma
Week 23: Education
(Mar)
Secondary and Post-Secondary School Organization:
Examinations, Grading, Diplomas
Review: Future
Week 24: Education
(Mar)
School Life: Extracurricular Activities, Relationships, Discipline
Week 25: Earning a Living
Types of Employment: Common Occupations, Summer or
(Mar)
Part-time Employment, Volunteer Work
Review: Conditional
Week 26: Earning a Living
(Mar)
Work Conditions: Training, Roles, Responsibilities, Benefits
Week 27: Travel
(Apr)
Transportation, Travel Agencies
Cultural Awareness: Semana Santa
Week 28: Travel
(Apr)
Transportation, Travel Agencies
Week 29: Travel
(Apr)
Lodging
254 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Week 30: Health and Welfare
(May)
Parts of the Body: Identification and Care
Illnesses and Accidents
Cultural Awareness: Cinco de Mayo
Week 31: Physical Environment
(May)
Physical Features
Week 32: Physical Environment
(May)
Climate, Weather, Quality of Environment
Week 33: Current Events
Political, Social, Economic Aspects
(May)
Cultural Aspects
Week 34: Portfolio Presentations
Regents Exam Part A: Speaking
(May/
June)
Week 35: Regents Exam Review
(June)
Week 36: Regents Comprehensive Exam, Parts B, C, D:
(June)
Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Writing
APPENDIX: CHAPTER SEVEN "
255
IIJ Course syllabus for Toby Brody's 8-week integrated skills course, "The
Newspaper," for intermediate-advanced students in an intensive English
program in the United States. (See page 132.)
Week
Syllabus
Introduction: Newspaper Scavenger Hunt
1
Focus: Summarizing
Tasks: Scanning for 5Ws and H questions
Predicting main ideas from headlines
Reading for main ideas
Answering comprehension questions
Listening for main ideas-short news report
Oral and written summaries
Linguistic Focus: Forming questions
Culture Focus: Asking colloquial questions (e.g., What's up?)
Focus: Interviewing
2
Tasks: Predicting main ideas from headlines
Skimming and scanning
Reading and role-playing an interview article
Interviewing students with "Interview Cards"
Writing feature story based on interview
Interviewing a native speaker
Reporting orally on interview with native speaker
Linguistic Focus: Review questions
Student-generated structures
Culture Focus: Interview a native speaker re a culture question
Focus: Objective reporting
3
Tasks: Reconstructing a strip story
Following and reconstructing a developing story
Reading first part of an article that "jumps"
and creating an ending
Sequencing radio news report
Linguistic Focus: Transitions and adverbial connectors
Culture Focus: Formats of newspapers and radio broadcasts
Focus: Proposing solutions
Tasks: Reading about and summarizing community problems
Researching community problems
Reporting on community problems and describing
actions to be taken
Creating a visual to capture a problem and its solutions
Presenting a synopsis of the visual
Linguistic Focus: Conditionals
Culture Focus: Connecting community problems to local realities
256 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
4
Focus: Letters-responding to editorials and seeking advice
5
Tasks: Explaining format and purpose of editorial page
Transforming headlines into complete sentences
Summarizing editorial stance
Guessing issues readers are addressing in letters
Distinguishing fact from opinion
Predicting main ideas from headlines
Taking a stand
Responding to an editorial
Role-playing based on an advice column
Seeking and giving advice
Linguistic Focus: Modals and periphrastic modals
Culture Focus: Airing grievances and emotional baggage
Focus: Analyzing
6
Tasks: Classifying environmental issues/problems
Making a visual of news clips depicting threats
to environment
Reporting on threats and possible actions to
counteract dangers
Reading and summarizing ways to reverse impact
Linguistic Focus: Student-generated structures
Culture Focus: The environment and U.S. lifestyles
Focus: Commercial and classified advertising
7
Tasks: Matching an actual text to images in commercial ads
Listing marketing strategies in U.S. vs. home country
Making a collage to promote a service or product
Designing ads for TV, magazines, and radio
Listing and defining abbreviations in classifieds
Matching unemployed people with job opportunities
Role-playing employer/prospective employee
Comparing and contrasting features and prices of cars
Reporting results of phone inquiries to ads
Defining and practicing strategies used in responding to ads
Linguistic Focus: Imperatives and student-generated structures
Culture Focus: Marketing and the American Way
Week 8: During the final week of class, the students will be
singularly busy creating their own newspaper. The project will be coordinated entirely by the students themselves. They will need to divide up
responsibilities in order to work effectively. Some of the material for the
newspaper will come from their written products, which have been placed
in folders: other pieces can be added, as need be. Students will use
Pagemaker, a program designed to configure a newspaper format. I will
simply serve as a resource, as the students see fit. I am confident that
eight weeks of exposure to an American newspaper would be sufficient
to give them the skills to produce a homemade edition. The final product
will serve as a means for me to assess whether or not the course goals
have been reached.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER SEVEN "
257
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Song: "Big Yellow Taxi"
Field trip to the mall
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Panel discussion groups
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Adjectives for foods
Identify the foods
Categories worksheet
"Do you like ___ "
ABC game
Self-interview
1111
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Interview an American
Discussion
Menus
Restaurant role play
Register
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Listening
Small group work
Practice
Error correction
Shops role play
Follow-up
American weights and
measures
Language lab
111
111
1111
Half-day field trip
to a supermarket,
a food cooperative,
and a restaurant
Discussion
Synthesis activity
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Feedback
Journals
Scrapbooks
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Brainstorming
Reading
Discussion
Interview preparation
Homework
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Drawings
You become an animal
Process writing
"Talk Show"
Video the talk show
Journals
111
Field trip to the zoo
1111
111
1111
111
Field trip follow-up
Language lab
Synthesis activity
Homework
1111
1111
111
111
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Murals/collages
Feedback
Journals
Scrapbooks
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Week Four
Theme: Heritage
"The Old Days"
Pioneers
Pioneers of today
Values clarification
Ask an American
Observations
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"Home Movies"
Writing
Journals
Contrajsquare dance
Wednesday
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Field trip to historic
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Thursday
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Field trip follow-up
Attitudes and opinions
Synthesis activity
Journals
Scrapbooks
Homework
Friday
1111
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Feedback
Skits
Fun and games
IDD Goals and objectives for Brooks Palmer's 12-week, 48-hour, ESP course
for professionals in the sciences. (See page 140.)
Goal: Develop scientific and technical writing skills and strategies
through a variety of activities moving in sequence from simple to
more complex.
Objectives: Students will be able to write:
1111 amplified definitions
1111 classifications
1111 abstracts
IIIII description of a mechanism
IIIII description of a process
IIIII "mini" research paper of 5+ pages including: introduction,
materials and methods, results, and a brief description
IIIII organize and draft a one page outline with main points and
include 2-3 discussion questions
1111 research a topic area using at least 3-4 sources
Ill critique peer products in regards to content and mechanics
Goal: Develop reading skills and strategies using a wide range of reading
materials including: journals, texts, technical manuals, catalogues
Objectives: Students will be able to
1111 skim and scan material for information
1111 read for meaning
1111
derive vocabulary meaning from context
1111 use a dictionary
Goal: Develop speaking and listening skills and strategies specifically
through public speaking and presentation activities involving technical writing products produced in the class.
Objectives: Students will be able to:
1111 deliver a 15-minute oral presentation on a technical topic of
student's choice
1111 conduct and manage a discussion (10-15 minutes) afterward,
discussing the pros and cons of the topic with audience
1111 speak with persuasion and express opinions in their
presentations
1111 take accurate notes and paraphrase the presentations of peers
1111 ask for further information, repetition, and clarification of
topic, vocabulary, and technical concepts presented
1111 critique peer presentations discussing specifically: presentation
style, use of persuasion and supporting details, synthesis, and
logical presentation of information
260 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
I
Diagram 6: Focus wheel
Description of target group
May be enlarged and/or photocopied
~
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fD First unit grid for Dylan Bate's course for Chinese university students
who will be English teachers. (See page 146.)
The Old Plan
Monday
Tuesday
5-10 minutes
20 minutes
25 minutes
Major sentence
stress:
telegraph of
the meaning
Love in America
dialogue:
structures,
expressions
Create dialogues in pairs or
small groups, perform for class,
practise for speaking log
5 minutes
assignment
25 minutes
Kacuy story: schema building,
stereotypes, what do you see
in this picture?
Focus on speaking strategies
How can you manage to say it
better each time? How can/did
your partner help you?
15 minutes
Focus on listening strategies:
Did you understand every word?
Did you have to guess the
meaning?
Class discussion/small group
work: Morals, what are they?
What is the moral of this story?
20 minutes
Feedback: homework
What strategies did you use
(listening/speaking)? Were they
successful? Written in logs
Pair work: Students must
describe their association for
a picture to two different
partners
Wednesday 5-10 minutes
Pre-reading
activity:
schema
building
Thursday
Friday
262 •
20 minutes
20 minutes
15 minutes
Code reading
from Schell
Romancejlove
Focus:
Problematizing,
reading
strategies
Responding to
the reading
Planning the
next step:
action?
Feedback:
Focus: role
plays, letter
writing,
discussion
5-10 minutes
10-20 minutes 20 minutes
10 minutes
Word stress:
verb vs. noun
Catch up and/
or writing a
story from
a series of
pictures
Feedback:
examining
learning
strategies
Working on
pronunciation,
major sentence
stress
10 minutes
10 minutes
20 minutes
15 minutes
Rhymalogues:
palatization,
reduced
expressions
Pre-feedback
listing and
remembering
what we did
and how
Group work
around
feedback
Game
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
10 minutes
Reporting to
the class:
What makes up
a good activity?
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Revised unit grid for Dylan Bate's course for Chinese university students
who will be English teachers. (See page 147.)
Unit Six Topic: love and Romance
Activity
Listening and
Speaking Skills
Story:
Kacuy
1111
l!il
Code
Reading:
Romance
111
Cultural Awareness
Critical Consumers
Listening to story:
schema building
Speaking:
explaining your
views several times
1111
Group work:
role play, writing
a letter together,
discussion
111
1111
1111
Sex stereotypes,
thirst for love,
sibling love
Morals
(for stories)
Reading a
foreigner's view of
Chinese romance
Responding to
outside perspectives
Learner
Autonomy
L Strategies:
selective listening,
getting the gist
S Strategies:
improving your
speaking through
peer feedback
1111
1111
1111
1111
1111
Love in
America
1111
1111
Rhymalogues
Weekly
Feedback:
Oral and
Written
1111
Dialogue: read,
discuss vocabulary,
expressions
Create own
dialogues/perform
1111
Small dialogues:
adjacency pairs
1111
Reviewing the week:
telling what we did
and how
1111 Group work:
stating your view,
restating others'
views
111 Reporting to the
whole class
1111
Discussion: love in
U.S. vs. China
R Strategies: preand post activities
Planning and
carrying out a plan
of action
Writing as a way of
helping thinking
1111
111
111
1111
Humor
(of a questionable
sort)
111
U.S. vs. Chinese
norms of feedback
Individual vs.
group learning
styles (implicit)
1111
111
111
111
Speaking;
Listening
Logs
1111
111
Practicing and
recording dialogues,
songs, stories,
and poems
Comparing self to
native speaker
1111
Making choices
111
about what to adopt
in the new language;
culture
1111
1111
111
L Strategies: major
sentence stress
Feedback
L/S Strategies:
authentic speech,
palatization,
reduced expressions
Examining
differences in
learning styles
Evaluating activities
for effectiveness:
what makes up a
successful activity?
Making choices and
evaluating them
Giving feedback
Discriminating
between global and
local errors
Setting goals and
adjusting them
Analyzing weaknesses and strengths,
picking appropriate
strategies
Taking risks
APPENDIX: CHAPTER SEVEN '"
263
Chapter Eight
mJ Sound Ideas. (See pages 158-160.)
Voice mail: not the answer?
by John Flinn
t's a long shot, but if this
revolt ever succeeds, grateful
telephone users may someday
erect a statue to Ed Crutch Held,
the man who fired the shot
heard 'round the world agamst
I
voice mail.
Joyful employees stood
and
applauded last month when Crutchfield,
chairman of First Union Bank in
Charlotte, N.C., sent out a memo
ordering the bank to ''press 1 to
di6comiect now" from its hated
voice·rnail ~ystem.
"The next time I call and get an
answering machine, we're going to be
minus one telephone an~wering
machine operator,'' warned Crutchfield's
memo.
His memo has become a rallying
point of voice·mail haters, who say the
computerized
phone
answering
systems symbolize the contempt some
businesses display for their customers
and that government agencies show for
the taxpayers ....
One reason we chafe nt voice mail
may be buried deep within the human
psyche, according to new research
conducted at Stanford University. The
technology violates basic rules of
human communication that have
existed since the first cavemen
grunted at each other, according to
Clifford Nass, an <t:isistant professor of
communication at Stanford.
"When people hear a human voice,
it sets off strong cues within their
brain, and it sets up certain
expectations," N<~ss said. "This is a very
hard-wired, visceral response.''
One Bay Area business is even
capitalizing on our loathing of voice
mail in its advertising campaign.
TakeCare Health Plan, the Concordbased health maintenance plan that
covers 230,000 members in California,
doesn't advertise that it has the most
liheral coverage or doctors with the
warmest bedside manner.
It advertises that its members don't
have to suffer through voice mail when
they call.
Most of the acrimony toward
voice mail could be eliminated, says
DeMarco, if system users made sure
callers always had an easy way to
punch out of the system and talk to a
live human being.
And voice-mail supporters point
out that pushing buttons or talking to
a recording can't be any more
irritating than listening to a buSy signal
or a phone ringing endlessly without
being answered.
There's one person who never gets
tired of hearing that disembodied
voice say, " ... or, press l, for more
options." That's because Joan Kenley
of Oakland loves hcarjng her own
voice.
intonations retain warmth and "smile"
Kenley, a former singer who has on a computer chip. "I'm everywhere,"
performed with Ethel Merman, is the she says. "I'm ubiquitous."
voice of voice mail. Northern Telecom,
Pacific Be11 and other major system
Reprintvd witb Jwnnisslml from
suppliers have hired her because
lbe Sm1 Francisro E.wmztner.
<V 1992 &m Prmz(·/sco E.1.wminer
oscilloscope
tests
show
her
264 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
"{{you baoe a question, press I,
now. If you would /Ike It answered,
press 2, tzow. If you would like to be
put on hold for 10 minutes, press 3,
now," the ads say, lampooning their
competitors' impenetrable voice-mail
systems. "If you want a membership
card, please punch in Beetboven 's
F({tb, now, in D mitwr."
Instead of using a computer,
TakeCare employs 12 human operators
to handle calls from its customers on
its toll-free line. On an average day, they
handle I, 170 inquiries.
"Voice mail erects a wall between
service industries and their customers,"
said Mike Massaro of Goldberg Moser
O'Neill, the agency that created the
campaign.
The people who make voice mail
say none of this is the fault of the
technology. The problem, they insist,
lies with users who do a shoddy job of
programming their systems.
"People will love it eventually,"
predicts Maria DeMarco, marketing
director tOr Pacific Bell Voice Mail.
Former singer joan Kenley
is the voice of voice mail,
hired by companies for
the "smile" she brings to
the recorded messages.
PREPARATION FOR LISTENING TO
"CALL WAITING COULD COST YOU FRIENDS"
Call Waiting," according to Pacific Bell Calling Customer Information, "gives
a special tone when someone calls while you are already on the phone. You can
answer the second call and then return to your original call without hanging up."
Many people say that it is rude to ask someone you are talking to to hold on
while you see who's on the other line.
You are going to hear a listening passage which has two parts:
a. a dialogue berween rwo friends, Wanda and Pat. Pat is very upset. (Stop
the tape when you hear the beep at the end of the dialogue so that you
can answer the questions under A below.)
b. a conversation between interviewer Bob Edwards and newspaper
columnist Judith Martin, otherwise known as "Miss Manners"®, who
answers letters from readers about manners and politeness. They talk
about the dialogue berween Wanda and Pat, and about the subject of call
waiting.
A. Close your eyes and listen to the dialogue once or rwice. Then, write as many
words as you can that describe the three people:
Pat is: [for example: upset, a close friend, etc.]
Wanda is:
Gary is:
With members of your class,
a. share the above descriptions and why you chose them.
b. predict what the interviewer and Miss Manners will say about Pat's and
Wanda's specific situation and call waiting in general.
B. Continue listening, and then answer the following questions:
1. What bothers Miss Manners the most about call waiting?
2. According to Miss Manners, what is a better way for a caller to find out that
you are already on the phone?
3. Did Pat really jump off a bridge? How do you know?
4. What did Miss Manners mean when she asserted that "if it's a genuine
emergency, it is one of these 'drop everything and attend to your friend'
situations"?
APPENDIX: CHAPTER EIGHT •
265
In the cartoon below, the man
has just called "911," the emergency number used throughout
the United States. To his surprise,
he hears a recording of a "voicemail menu."
1. Why do you think this is
called a "menu"?
2. Notice the musical notes at
the end of the recording.
And notice that the man
sarcastically says, "Oh, great.
Muzak." Can you guess what
"Muzak" is and where
people usually hear it played?
3. What is absurd about the
situation portrayed in this
cartoon?
4. Have you ever heard of or
had to use a voice-mail
menu? If so, how do you
feel about it?
266 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
By DAN P1RAR0
1'1-\""""'{0\.1 fOil CALLING ''911 ~
IF '<'OU
.WIS\-1 TO R.EfO!lf J>. FIRE, NSH ''ONE~ ...
"''"i:>U•·""'IU.
IF 't'OU WISt-\ TO ru:;QUEI;T Al-l
'PUSI1"'l'NO:.... IF YOU ARE SI:IN& ~
PU~H ''TI-IRE.'E.': ..... IF 'I'OU AfZE. SEINGv
AiTACKE~ ~ ~ NOTCAL\..lNG- A?OM
A TOUO\·TONE. PHONE, !'Ustl ..l.El<!O~ OR
SfA.'{ ON THE' LINE Jl.NV AN ~AATO'R
WILL \,;!; 'v'Jil}l '(OU IN A \t'OW16tol \..!~
Source: The "BIZARRO" cartoon by Dan Piraro is
reprinted by permission of Chronicle Features,
San Francisco, California
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
riEJ Handout on clarifying and paraphrasing (Monday, II) for Cyndy
Thatcher-Fettig's speaking and listening course. (See page 158.)
Communication Skills
Technique 4-CiarifyingjParaphrasing
Often we are not sure exactly what the speaker wants to say. In this unit
we are going to learn how to ask for clarification, how to restate, and how
to paraphrase.
Key phrases
Asking for clarification:
What do you mean?
I'm not sure what you mean.
Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean.
Could you explain what you mean by ... ?
Are you saying that ... ?
I'm not sure I follow you. Did you say that ... ?
Clarifying or restating:
I mean ...
In other words ...
The point I'm trying to make is ...
Paraphrasing:
Joe said that ...
What Mary means is .. .
I believe Dan's point is .. .
I think Ann feels ... Isn't that right?
Let me see if I understood. You said ...
Checking for understanding:
Do you seejknow what I mean?
Is that clear?
Do you understand?
Activity
Discuss the following topics with your partner. Make sure to use the
expressions for clarifying, paraphrasing, and restating.
1. Explain how you feel about telling a white lie.
2. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of living with someone
before marriage.
3. Explain how you feel about hunting for pleasure or hunting for food.
4. Explain how you feel about welfare.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER EIGHT "
267
miJ Blank handout for practical situations (Wednesday, II) for Cyndy
Thatcher- Fettig's speaking and listening course. (See page 159.)
Practical Situations
Telephoning
Calling
Receiving
In:
In but not available:
Out:
Leaving messages
Taking messages
Saying good-bye
Hanging up
Wrong number
If receiver is you
268 •
On another line
Receiver
Caller one
Answering machines
Machine greeting
Leaving messages on machines
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Caller two
mJ Example materials for Cyndy Thatcher- Fettig's speahing and listening
course: simulation roles, role-play cards, situations (Tuesday, III
simulation; Thursday, III role-play cards; Friday, II telephone situations).
(See pages 159-160.)
Example Materials
-------~-------------
1. Roles for the simulation activity on Tuesday
(adapted from Sound Ideas):
A particular language school has had an influx of cal/s lately and
the one receptionist has not been able to handle al/ of the cal/s.
The question being raised in this meeting is: Should the school
hire an additional receptionist or should they get voice-mail?
President: You have called this meeting in order to listen to everyone's
view-point
Manager: You want to hire another telephone receptionist to take all
of the phone calls.
Sales manager: You are against voice-mail. You think that personal
sales is an asset to your institute.
Financial analyst: Your funds are low and although the company
can afford to hire another person, you think that voice-mail is more
economical.
Receptionist: You think that getting voice-mail should help in the influx
of calls.
Teacher: You are against voice-mail, you think it is too impersonal.
II. Cue cards for role-play activity on Thursday:
Caller:
Receiver:
111
Joe is in the shower.
1111
Take a message.
Ill. Case situations for warm-up activity on Friday:
1111
111
You want to call the cable company and ask
them how to get cable installed in your house.
A long-distance telephone company keeps on
calling you to change your long-distance carrier.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER EIGHT "
269
11'3 Handout for practical situations: getting information on the phone
(Friday, III) for Cyndy Thatcher-Fettig's speaking and listening course.
(See page 160.)
Practical Situations
Getting Information on the Phone
Asking a complicated question is difficult. Asking it on the phone is even
more difficult. The following phrases will help you when you are calling to
get information.
Key Phrases
I'm calling to find out .. .
I'd like to ask you about .. .
Could you tell me .. .
I'm calling about .. .
I was wondering if you could tell me ...
I wonder if you could help me ...
With your partner, match each of the following situations (1-6) with the
appropriate response (a-f) and then role-play them.
1. You are calling the theater to find out what time tonight's
performance starts.
2. You are calling the post office to find out how to send a package
to your country so that it arrives in time for Christmas.
3. You are calling the airline to find out the earliest flight from Tokyo
to Hong Kong next month.
4. You are calling your doctor's office to make an appointment with
Dr. Crawford.
5. You are phoning your local paper to find out how to place an
advertisement-you want to sell a pair of skis.
6. You are calling a language school to find out how much their
evening courses cost.
a. By surface before November 1st. By air before December 3rd.
b. It has been canceled.
c. Ads must be placed by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Pay cash at the office or credit card by phone.
d. Two evenings/three hours per eveningj$180 per term.
e. He is on vacation for a month/his assistant is Dr. Mills.
f. 6:30a.m., then 10:30 a.m., 3:30p.m., 7:00p.m.
Homework
Brainstorm places to call and make one phone call to get information.
270 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
11m Goals and partial objectives for Cyndy Thatcher- Fettig's speaking and
listening course. (See page 160.)
Cyndy has five goals for her course.
By the end of the course the students will have:
1. developed the oral and listening language skills they need to perform
independently in an academic setting.
2. developed the functional and notional skills they need to perform
independently in United States daily life.
3. developed and be able to employ communication strategies to
independently participate in discussions and conversations.
4. developed an awareness of the cultural and sociolinguistic factors
related to academic and daily life situations in the United States.
5. had practice and experience in academic and United States daily life
situations to feel competent to handle situations outside of the ESL
class confidently.
Objectives for Goal #2
Students will be able to:
a. express needs for services in which they will be engaged.
b. use formulaic expressions (formal and informal) related to each
functional situation.
c. listen to, respond to, and formulate questions.
d. pronounce the formulaic expressions with the appropriate stress
and intonation.
e. behave in culturally appropriate ways in United States daily life
situations, being aware of paralinguistic, extralinguistic, and
sociolinguistic factors.
0!11 Study
Cyndy's unit on telephone technology. What relationship do you
see between the unit and Goal #2 and its objectives?
APPENDIX: CHAPTER EIGHT "
271
Example letters for Chris Conley's course for intermediate adult
learners in a community adult education program in the United States.
(See pages 161-163.)
May 7, 1997
Jan Clark
Hanaford's Supermarket
123 Elm St.
Boston, MA 98765
Dear Ms. Clark:
We are writing to you today to invite you as a guest speaker to
the XYZ Institute. We are interested in having a presentation about
the history of your store. Our class is interested in the businesses
of our neighborhood.
Our institute teaches English, computers, and has job training
to help people to get a better job. We are a class of 15 students
studying English at XYZ Institute. We are interested in your business
since it is in our community and we shop there every day.
We hope that you will accept our invitation and speak to our class.
We would be very happy to hear your presentation about Hanaford's
Supermarket. Our phone number is 123-4567. We will call you in a
few days to ask you about your decision. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
The students at XYZ Institute and their teacher, Chris Conley
272 "
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
5-7-17
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APPENDIX: CHAPTER EIGHT "
273
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_{b!te.l't{/e {i/a!!t•oom
The School for International Training
cordially invites you to attend our reception at the
31st Annual TESOL Convention
Friday March 14, 1997
7:30- 9:30P.M.
The Indian Room
at the Sheraton World Resort
10100 International Drive,
Orlando, Florida
Hors d'Oeuvres • Cash Bar
274
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
I
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GfjAMMAR
Pasuonao of be " Advelhs of frequency after
ba • PmpositiOl'l in+ the seasons and
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Toshio
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theLogans
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Brazil, Colombia
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New York City
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Toshio I Hong Kong I yesterday
A: Toshio was in Hong Kong yesterday.
B: No. He was in Winfield.
1.
2.
3.
4.
tl
Last week
Hong Kong,Tokyo
California
Winfield
Boston
The Logans I New York City /last month
A: The Logans were in New York City last month.
B: That'sright.
Toshio Ito is a flight attendant for World Airlines. Toshio likes his job because he
likes to travel and he likes to work with people. Last month he was in South
>
""""tn
z
Yesterday
Winfield
New York
Look at the chart. Make statements about where the people were. Another student
will accept or correct the statement.
America. He was in Brazil and Colombia. Last week he was in Hong Kong and
SAM:
How was the flight, Toshio?
Tosmo: Difficult. The weather was bad, and we were late getting into San
Francisco. I'm sure the passengers weren't happy about that flight!
LisA:
Mr. Ito, do you like your job?
TosHIO: Sure, Usa. Today was just a bad day.
LisA:
Why do you like it?
TosHJo: I like to work with people, and I like to travel.
LisA:
'\!\<bat's your favorite place?
TosHJo: That's a hard question. I like South America. I go to Colombia
and Brazil a lot. The people are very nice, and I like the weather there.
It's always warm. Of course, I like the United States too. New York is
nice in the summer, but I don't like it in the winter.
L[SA:
Why not?
TosHio: It's too cold. I hate cold weather.
LISA:
I love winter. I love to ice skate.
ToSHio: A lot of my friends like to skate too, Lisa, but not me.
(1:>
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class.
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Nhu Trinh I Boston I yesterday
The Logans I Winfield /last week
Toshio I Hong Kong /last month
The Youngs I Winfield /last week
Toshio I South America /last month
The Logans I Hong Kong I yesterday
Nhu Trinh I California I yesterday
The Logans I New York City /last month
Toshio I Brazil/last week
The Youngs I Boston I yesterday
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Listen and practice with a partner.
[!]Introducing yourself: Hi. My name's...
I am Judy S<ooe.
,--,----,
~
.....
I->
0
t':r:l
My name is Mike Miller.
il"
..,.
[JJ
1. Pair work. Practice the conversation.
Mike:
Judy:
Mike:
Judy:
1~
~
..,.
Hi. My name's Mike Miller.
Hi, Mike. I'm Judy Stone.
Nicetomectvou,Judv.
Nice to meet }·ou, too.'
[JJ
t;d
Now practice the conversation again.
Use your own name.
_r_r_j
il"
[JJ
r:;·
2. Class activity. Meet five classmates.
[JJ
~Greeting someone: How are you?
~
<1l
<1l
"<:::i-
Fine.
How•reyou?
I
O.K.
Pretty good.
Not bad.
Great!
1. Pair work. Practice the conversation.
Carlos:
Kazuko:
Carlos:
Kazuko:
Hi, Kazuko.
Hi, Carlos. How are you?
Fine, thanks. How are you?
Great!
Now practice tlte conversation again.
Use your own name.
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z
lj
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t"J:j
"'z
z
t"J:j
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.....,
.....,
Mary:
Rick:
Mary:
Rick:
Hi, Rick!
Hi, Mary! How are you?
Fine, thanks. How are you?
Great.
2. Class activihJ. Greet five classmates.
i
I->
\0
w
I
I->
\0
0\
'-
~
-a
=
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tl1
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z
z0
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~Identifying someone: Excuse me, are you... ?
0
1. Pair work. Match the words with the pictures. Then practice saying the words.
tl1
J:L
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0
c::
[i]Vocabulary: Jobs
1. anartist
2. an athlete
1. Pair work. Practice the conversation.
3. a businessman
::0
A: Excuse me, are you
Julia Roberts?
tl1
B: No, I'm not. I'm Mary HalL
"'
A: Oh,l'msorry.
B: That'sO.K
7. areporter
Now practice the conversation again.
8- asinger
Student B: Use your own name.
9. a te.1cher
"'
>
CJ
c::
4. a doctor
5. an engineer
6. a movie star
2. Pair work. Practice the conversation.
~
t:l
tl1
"rj
0
::0
....,
tl1
~
n
::r:
A: Excuse me, are vou
TomCruise? "
B: Yes,lam.
A: Hi.Myname'sRickLong.
B: Nice to meet you, Rick
A: Nicetomeetyou, too.
Now practice the conversation again.
Student A: Use your own name.
Student B: You are Tom Cruise or julia Roberts.
Usn a before consonants.- a mov1c star
Use an before vowels. - an athlete
3. Class activity.
2 Group work. Complete the sentences about famous people.
,---
tl1
I
::0
i
I ? I
L_j
Vl
Julia Roberts is a movie star.
-~is a movie star, too.
1. Write your name
on three pieces of
paper.
2 Put the pieces of
paper into a box.
3. Choose three new
names from the
box.
4. F'md the three
classmates.
Michael Jordan is an athlete.
--·-is an athlete, too.
Now make sentences about other famous people.
]}~@Nl)]N€11~1ii1i@N
IiEJISIT!liENIN®
(!la L;stenand";,at~:=onsto~epictures.
1
~
Word stress
a! Listen and circle the loudest part of each word.
1. I'manartist
2. I'm an athlete.
3. I'm a businessman.
1.
2.
4. I'm a doctor.
5. I'm an engineer.
6. I'm a movie star.
7. I'm a reporter.
8. I'm a singer.
9. I'm a student..
l 0. I'm a teacher.
3.
4.
@ist
ath lete
busi ness man
doc tor
en gi neer
movie star
re por ter
sing er
stu dent
teacher
Now listen and say the sentences.
@19ili$1iil±!~E
[g] a
I
I
I
L;sten and choose the correct answeL Circle a or b.
1. Read the chart.
1. @Hi.Myname'sMary.
b. No, I'm not.
2.
~a
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>
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z
tl
:><:
(")
:r:
>
...,
""
ti1
~
z
z
ti1
•
1..:1
.....
=
a. Oh, I'm sorry.
4.
a.Myname'sRick.
b. Fme, thanks.
5.
a. Yes, I am.
b. That's O.K.
6.
a. That's O.K.
b. Nice to meet you, Rick.
3.
I
€1t\1RSBISE
Titles: Mr., Mrs., Miss, and Ms.
a. Fme, thanks.
b. Hi, Mary.
b. Nice to meet you.
Fred Adams
Mr. Adams
Hilda Adams
Mrs. Adams
Ms. Adams
MarvHall
MisS Hall
Ms. Hall
ru-,-,-M-,..•-,..._-w-1-th-m-,rr-i-ed_w_o_m_en'. ru..-,-.tle_s_w_ith-1,-,-,na-m-,.-on-Jy':
L;sten and answer the questions.
Use Miss or Ms. with single women.
~
3.
_-_·-___________________
--··-·----·--
4. --------------------
Mr. Adams
2 Look at the pictures above and complete the sentences.
1. _
Adams is a businessman.
2.
3.
Adams is a teacher.
Hall is a student.
Now make sentences about people you know.
~
.~
•
~
Yut lt"'[oy,efuet: ~(
~I
~I
11ract~ce
onl"'9" 58 · I
1
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Nl
=
=
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ti
ti1
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z
Cl
z
Cl
I:""'
:>
z
Cl
c
:>
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ti1
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0
c
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IGrammar Points
ti1
PRESENT TENSE OF
Statements
l
Yuu
It
My !lilml.'
>
CJ
c
....J
:>
ilth!.:>te
artist
bu~m~~man
t~thlete
busines~mnn
doctor
engmeer
Mti»t
m<1\'it>SL:1T
rl.'portcr
Arc- y<.m .l l<Jur guidt-?
ti1
ti1
I'm
You're
lt's
My name'~
Game: Are you ... ?
1. Pair work. Write names of famous people under each job.
smg.t.•r
Short answers
YL~.I.:1m.
2.
~o.l'mnut.
"11
:;;;
Contractions
am arc b
is
-
New Words
jOBS
Yes·no questions
tl
0
BE
Howareyou?
B:
Short answers
1[
Yt.>:>,l<~rn.
A: Art> vou juliil Roberts?
5: Ye~.·lam
Fine
: NocFI:-oiTE A.RTICI.ES
Pair work. Practice the conversation.
A: Are you .1 !>lngt.>r?
B: No,l'mnot.
A: Are you J movie sto.~r?
. Information questions
AJ AN
Now practice the conversation again.
()
Student A: Choose a name from the list above.
~
ti1
Student B: Guess your partner's name.
:;;;
"'
3. Class activity. Choose another name from your list.
Then talk to other classmates and guess their jobs and names.
APOLOGIZING
T'm,.;•m.
Tharsci.K.
OTHER EXPRESSIOJ"S
fx1.:u~eme
Art·~ou
__
l'milstudomt.
87
88
Unit 6 o{New Interchange 3. (See page 196.)
CONVERSATION
rifi} Listen and practice.
A
Clerk:
Helen:
Clerk:
Helen:
Clerk:
Helen:
Clerk:
Helen:
Clerk:
Can I help you?
Yes, I'd like to return this jacket.
Is there something the matter with it?
Yes. I didn't notice when I bought it, but
there are a few problems. First, it has a
tear in the lining.
Hrnm. Actually, it's torn in several places.
And some of the buttons are very loose.
This one came off, in fact. And there's a
stain on the collar.
I'm really sorry about this. Would you like to
exchange it for another one'?
Well, to be honest, I don't think this jacket is
very well made. I'd rather gel a refund.
I understand. Do you have the receipt?
B
Class activity Have you ever returned anything
to a store? Why? How did the store respond?
GRAMMAR FOCUS
A
What needs to be done in this apartment? Write statements about
these items using need with passive infinitives or gerunds.
1. the walls (paint.)
2. the carpet (shampoo)
3.
4.
5.
6.
the windows (wash)
the dam· <repair)
the lamp shade (replace)
the wastebasket (empty)
The wall> need ta be~ painted
QR
~~
The wnl/i need pnintin<J~
B Pair work Think of five improvements you would like to make in your home.
Which improvements will you most likely make? Which won't you make?
"First of all, tho carpet in the living room needs to be replaced. I can't afford
it right now, though, !-lO I'll probably do that next year. . . "
APPENDIX: CHAPTER NINE "
281
READING
l:l<lllr Awutbelle,
My MW 01.r llM aprol®m: Evary raw hundrod
mnoo, l!lllro oll rn>ndll to ho ndd&d. r think thiS m!l&ls
oomethlug!S brolwn. Ell6h time l tsks \ha car Into
the dealer, th<)Ugh, tll6 l!<!rvloo P"'Plil hllllst thai
nnUllug Meds t\llug. 'llllM can I do?
-" Bi'o!<en 11own in Detroit
»ear Bi'o!<en llown,
1don't know much about'"""'· bUll can dl!ll!ooaa
yo\11' problem: You're dealing wlth an un1'1l1Jll')nslva
bUill nell!!. For\UIIlllelY, \hare are many tlll!l!lS
you cando:
1. For swrtoro, complain lo the bUBlm>~S, In person
or by phOne. &xpla!n Uw problem tn a W61/ that Is
1\rm but Ml ruda.lf yilU don't seem to be gott!ng
anywhoNl, give up -for tho moment. Find out
who you'Nl ta!kl!l!lto and who you should talk
to next. Ma!W notes of what's been ..td.
you were given or to oomooM In the bwltnooo'a
customeNrorvloo department. To maM yo\11'
wrRton complaint offootlva, type I~ !!We the fMill
fully but brl<llly and <m<JlOOil coptoo of relevant
doouments Ill<• ril®lpts and wamnuoo. lfyoo slill
don't got a Bllllsfootor.Y respoll$1l, send your l~r
to the bwllllOOll'ale;!al department or president.
3. If no oM wJUlln tllo company llM halpod you, IW
time to talte your complaint to poopla ®tsl® the
company. Chook y®r phone book for tha nutnbero
oftlw Bvttor Buslnoos Bures.u and kllla! consumer
groups. F1nd out whether your kllla! nswsJ)®Or or
rodl<lslallon has a oonsumer llolllne.
This might sound like a lot olwork, bUt ll's worth lt.
As a consumer, you havo certain rights. Stand up
for them!
A
Read the column. Based on the advice in the letter, explain what each of
these consumers did wrong. Then say whnt each should have done.
1. When Mira's new TV didn't work, she went back to the store to complain.
'fhe salesperson she spoke to didn't seem to cure, so Mit•a began yelling at him.
She kept yelling, even when he turned to help another customer.
2. Ed couldn't get his new compute!' to work. Feeling angry and frustrated,
he immediately began looking for consumer groups to complain t.o.
a. When Alex couldn't get any help by complaining on the
phone, he sent the customer-service department n ten-page
handwritten letter that explained his pmblcm fully.
B
Group work Talk about these questions.
1. Which ofLhis advice have you used or would you use'? Why?
2. What else cnn you do when you have 11 ('om plaint about a
business'?
3. Are there organizations in yo\H' country thal help people when they
have complnints'? What are they'?
282 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
WRITING
Letters of complaint
A
Choose one ofthesc sih1ations and write a letter describing
the problem and what needs to be done.
There are several things that need fixing
in your apartment.
B Class activity
You bought an appliance thnt doesn't work. You
took it back, but the clerk refused to exchange it.
Pass your letters around the class. Who has the most unusual problem?
PRONUNCIATION
Contrastive stress
A ~ Listen and practice. Notice how the second speaker stresses the words he is contrasting.
A: Are you calling about the b~droom f~n?
B: No, I'm calling about the kitchen fan.
B
A: Are you calling aho,ut the bedroom window?
B: No, the bedroom door.
u(j} Mark the words that have contrastive stress in these conversations.
Listen and check. Then practice the sentences.
1. A: Did you need two lightbulbs?
B: No, I asked for three lightbulbs.
2. A: Does your television need to be repaired?
B: No, my telephone needs to be repaired.
SNAPSHOT
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce and Consumer Protoction O!Hce
Talk about these questions.
Have you ever complained about any of these types of businesses?
What are three other businesses or things people often complain about?
Have you ever wanted to complain about something, but didn't? What was it?
APPENDIX: CHAPTER NINE "
283
It?
GRAMMAR FOCUS
A Here are some comments made by customers in a restaurant. Write sentences
in two different ways using forms of the word in parentheses. Then compare with
a partner.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
This tablecloth isn't very clean. Look, it .
(stain)
Let's ask for another water pitcher. This one .
Oenk)
The chairs look pretty worn. The wood . . , too. (scratch)
'fhe waiter needs n new Bhirl. 'l'he one he's weming ... , (tear)
I'm sorry. Could you bring me another glass? This one .
(chip)
B Pair work Describe two problems with each thing, using past participle,
verb, or noun fomts of the words below or other words of your own.
A: The vase is chipped.
B: Yes. And it has a crack on the side.
break
burn
chip
IP
crock
1. a vase
2. a fountain pen
3. a CD
4. a pair of sunglasses
5. a pair of jeans
6. a shirt
dent
leok
loose
scratch
staln
lear
C Group work
Look around your classroom. How many problems can you describe'?
A: The carpet is a little wom.
B: Yes. And the windows are a bit dirty.
C: Look over there. 'l'he curtains.
35
ROLEPLAY
What's the problem?
Student A: You are returning nn item to a store. Decide
what the item is and explain why you are returning it.
Student B: You are a salesperson. A customer is
returning an item to the store. Ask these questions:
What exactly is the problem? Can you show it to me?
When did you buy the item? Was it like this when you bought it?
Do you have the receipt? Would you Hke a refund or a store credit?
284 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
CONVERSATION
A r:ifi}
Ms.
Mr.
Ms.
Mr.
Ms.
Listen and practice.
Lock:
Burr:
Lock;
Burr:
Lock:
Mr. Burr:
Ms. Lock:
Mr. Burr:
Ms. Lock:
Mr. Burr:
Ms. Lock:
WORD POWER
Hello?
Hello, Ms. Lock. This is Jack Burr.
Uh, Mr. Burr ... in Apartment 205?
No, in Apartment 305.
Oh, yes. What can I do for you? Does
your refrigerator need fixing again?
No, it's the oven this time.
Oh, so what's wrong with it?
Well, I think the temperature control
needs to be checked. Everything 1 try to
cook gets burned.
Really? OK, I'll have someone look at it
right away.
'I11nnks n lot, Ms. Lock.
Uh, by the way, Mr. Burr, are you sure
it's the oven and not your cooking?
Appliances
A Find a suitable 8entm\Ce in column B to describe a problem with each
appliance in column A. Then compare with a partner.
A
IJ
L air conditioner
2. central heniing
3. electric blanket
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
4.
5.
6.
7.
H.
food processor
iron
stove
teh.~phone
washing machine
The water won't drain, and my clothes are )eft sonking.
I put it on high, but it doesn't cool down the room.
I sometimes smell gas even when I'm not cooking.
I turn it on, but it doesn't heat up.
I can't get a dial tone.
It gets too hot and burns my clothes.
My apartment is freezing cold in the morning,
The blades are dull, so it doesn't chop vegetables very well.
B Pair work D<•st:ribe other things that t'an go wrong
with some of the appliancm; in part A
LISTENING Repair jobs
ri{j; Listen to three repair people talking about their jobs. Complete the chart.
LISTENING Fair exchange?
r:{j} Listen to three customers returning items they purchased. Complete the chart.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER NINE "
285
lil3 Mary Patten's mind map for Crosscurrents 2, Unit 2, on theme of male
and female. (See page 200.)
286 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
li!l Mary Patten's notes for page 1 of Crosscurrents 2, Unit 2.
(See page 200.)
UNII
Alike yet different
Talk it over
Pre.-: tkYc.U'W fu-m-y: fl~r:t/i_');afioi'V1 yfu-e-ofype.-, rof.e;;-
7'
!Jrain-yforrn- porfra:;aL o(
Complete the sentences using some of the words in the list.
Women nre more~- lh(ln men.
Men arc more~- than women.
competitive
considemle
cautious
intuitive
logical
industrious
possessive
generous
emotional
relaxed
Compare your sentences and opinions with a clnssmnte.
Which statements do you agree with?
l
~ wo~
tlJ1.d
citddre.1, m. ~
~-- review tJocfl.fr. (or 11(
(Jraiw;-forrn- pltrll.se'Y/tJocfl.fr. (or
CO;;tpa.r'~ tlJ1.d COI'Vfrctyflng OI'V ffoctrd
e.-xpt!J1.d 11( wd~ ~ pltrctYe~Y
tlJ1.d tJocfl.fr. - /11.ll.le. {L'yf OI'V f;octrd
>?~
ity f/~OUy
tw,ity
~
How do ~ rejtuf JV/oro~ cdfure.-7
ilmer£d;t;,v cdfure.-7 Wlvj do you fftid YO 7
APPENDIX: CHAPTER NINE '"
287
Mary Patten's sequence for Crosscurrents 2, Unit 2, on theme of male
and female. (See page 200.)
Activity Sequencing: Unit 2 (Culture and Community Aspects)
288 °
Day :1.
Day 2
Day 3
Discuss the meanings;
concepts of the words generalization, stereotype, and
roles with students to build/
activate schema about how
men, women, and children
are portrayed through various media.
Cartoons and illustrations: Discuss information
provided by the visuals and
brainstorm generalizations
that can be made from them,
which ones portray stereotypes. Discuss (in pairs, then
as a whole class) which ones
are reflective of Moroccan
culture, of the students as
individuals, as men, women,
and children, and why.
Which ones do they think
are reflective of American
culture and why?
Reading on Culture from
Lonely Planet (1993) to provide an opportunity for them
to go through the process
of taking their background
knowledge and using it as
they read through a passage
and apply the topic to themselves, on various levels,
from general to specific.
Students brainstorm
important aspects of M.
culture that foreign visitors
should be aware of, note
those they feel are most
important from their own
points of view, skim the
reading, noting similarities
and differences to what they
said-dialogue with a partner
about findings, read to find
roles or groups they identify
with, discuss findings and
thoughts with small group.
HW: freewriting about
anything concerning the topics covered in class, to bring
to the next class.
Students share and respond
to freewritings with partners
-find main ideas and brainstorm examples to support
them, and write them on
a separate sheet of paper,
which they can look back at
later in the unit.
Pre-listening: talk about
and describe family members
and their roles and discuss
how a family is a micro
community-this is to build
student awareness of
overlapping communities
and how each individual
may take on different roles
in different communities.
Post-listening community
questions and culture questions-who took on the role
of the cook in the listening
passage? Why do you think
it was a shared role? What
about in your culture? In your
family? Why?
Freewriting: 5 minutesabout role(s) students play
in their families, or other
members of their families,
to generate ideas and incorporate personal background.
Discuss in small groups
about their roles, then
create a mini role play (2-3
minutes) around one theme
(such as cooking, driving,
etc.) and each member of
the group plays a different
role. This is to help develop
roles within the groups as
well as to reflect personal,
individual roles from their
family lives-thus building
an overlap of communities.
HW: freewriting about
class topics, relation to
real life.
Students share and respond
to freewritings with partners
-find main ideas and brainstorm examples to support
them, and write them on
a separate sheet of paper,
which they can look back at
later in the unit.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Activity Sequencing: Unit 2 (Culture and Community Aspects)
Day 5
Day 6
Day 8
Classroom roles: brainstorm
what they are-identification.
Students identify which ones
they take on, when, whyin pairs. In small groups,
discuss which they value
morejless, why? As a whole
class, discuss opinions. Talk
about how many roles make
up the class community, and
what happens when various
roles are missing-flux of
the group.
Pictures and questions:
Boys' Work or Girls' Workstudents are divided into
small groups with mix of
ages and sexes, and asked
to divide into roles (secretary, time keeper, etc.) and
talk about at least 4 questions from each category
and be ready to report their
findings to the class. This
allows students to be conscious of the roles they are
playing and to possibly
experiment with one they
are not used to, and to see
how they work together to
build group cohesiveness.
HW: freewriting (as in
previous days, to be shared
at the beginning of the next
class).
Working with writing partners,
students review brainstorming ideas and examples
about the topics presented
during the unit and try to
find one main idea that they
want to write a paragraph
about. Students help each
other identify any supporting
ideas or examples that can
be included or considered.
This aims at unifying the
unit theme and reviewing
the daily presentations and
helping students connect
their individual backgrounds
to their learning process.
HW: write first draft.
Interpretation and observation: Students and I brainstorm generalizations
chart about Moroccan and
American men and women.
Discuss whether generalizations are always appropriate
andjor accurate. Talk about
the terms interpretation
and observation. Look at
chart and try to identify
interpretations and observations (if none of these are
on chart, ask students to
try to give some, or provide
an example first) and look
at the differences between
them and why it is important
to distinguish between them.
In small groups, students
look at making generalizations, interpretations, and
observations about the unit
theme, as it relates to them
(roles they play, community,
cultural aspects), and write
down one statement for each
term, to present to the class.
This aims at incorporating
all the material covered in
the unit, and allowing students to personalize it.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER NINE •
289
Chapter Ten
!miJ Error correction symbols handout for David Thomson's 4-week course,
"Teaching Writing Using Computers." (See page 217.)
Error Correction Symbols
Symbol
1.
wf
Kind of Error
Example of error
Corrected Sentence
word form
He is
He is strange.
C-O
2.CO
collocation/
co-occurence
She is\polite atf>trangers. She is polite to strangers.
3. sva
subject-verb
agreement
~to
4. vt
verb tense
She go yesterday.
5.aux
6. mod
7. vbal
wo
v+
au~<.
auxiliary verb
He don't going.
mod
modal
You should be right.
verbal
I
vba\
enjoy~
ice cream.
He goes to the movies.
She went yesterday.
He isn't going.
You may be right.
I enjoy eating ice cream.
number
He has many friend.
(singulars/plurals)
He has many friends.
word order
She is never late.
wo
She is late never.
prep
10. prep
preposition
It is at my pocket.
It is in my pocket.
11. sp
spelling
I like his stile.
I like his style.
12.
yf or p punctuation
13.
ww
15.
18.
c or
Because they are old.
She works very hard.
She is Susan.
-R0--
I
???
They have less energy
because they are old.
run-on
sentence
1 like ice cream it
tastes good.
I like ice cream.
It tastes good.
insert
She used)ive in Boston.
She used to live in Boston.
2
omit
19. pp
20.
works,'~ery hard p
He is Susan.
incomplete
sentence
16. 11
I
She
ww
--inc.-----
RO
17.
sp
wrong word
14. inc
290 •
the movies.
'If
8.#
9.
sva
am
capitalization
goin~tp there.
he is my Friend.
paragraph
Meaning is unclear; I do not understand.
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
I am going there.
He is my friend.
ll!'lfJ Self-rating forms for David Thomson's 4-week course,
"Teaching
Writing Using Computers." (See page 217.)
Types of Writing
:1.. Social Correspondence
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:--------------------------
2. Summaries
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:--------------------------
2. Short Narratives (factual topics)
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:--------------------------
2. Descriptions (factual topics)
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:--------------------------
APPENDIX: CHAPTER TEN •
291
Writing Evaluation Forms
I. Content;Organization
A. Introduction/Thesis Statement
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The writing has an introduction that clearly frames and establishes
the purpose of the paper, and gets the reader's attention. For multi-paragraph
assignments, a clear thesis statement has been written to inform the reader
of the gist (perhaps point of view, theme, primary point of argument, etc.)
of the paper.
B. Topic Sentence(s)jSupporting Details
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: Each paragraph has a clearly stated topic sentence that is followed
by supporting information, details, facts, or opinions. The writer's ideas andjor
opinions are well developed and supported.
C. Logical Sequencing/Connection of Ideas and Information 1 Cohesion
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The writing is well organized at all levels. Information flows in a
logical sequence (from general to specific, from most important to least important, chronologically, etc.). Information in the paragraph is directly related to the
topic sentence. Appropriate transition words are used throughout. The writer
effectively uses pronouns and other referential links.
D. Conclusion
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The main points of the writing assignment have been briefly reiterated or summarized in a conclusion.
292 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
II. Vocabulary/Word Choice
A. Range/Variety
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:------------------------EXCELLENT: A mix of words appropriate for the assignment has been used
throughout. The writer uses words confidently and correctly to describe and
inform, and is able to effectively use idiomatic expressions. The writer has
not had to rely on a dictionary or translation; the words used in the writing
are suitable for the purpose.
B. Word Form
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: Writer consistently uses the correct form of words, i.e.,
the adjectival form when appropriate, the noun form when appropriate, etc.
C. Collocation/Co-occurrence
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The writer uses phrasal verbs, adjective + preposition,
verb + preposition, verb + noun, etc. combinations in correct forms.
Ill. language Use
A. Subject Verb Agreement
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: There are few if any subject/verb agreement errors.
B. Verb Tense/Aspect
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:--------------------------
APPENDIX: CHAPTER TEN •
293
EXCELLENT: The writer uses correct verb tense and aspect throughout the
assignment.
C. SingutarjP/ural (#)
poor
good
fair
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: There are few, if any, errors with regard to the use of singulars and
plurals (number).
D. Word Order
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: Writer shows good ability to structure sentences; has a tacit understanding of phrase structure rules.
E. Prepositions
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The writer has made few errors that distract from intended meaning.
IV. Mechanics
A. Spelling
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: The spelling checker has been used effectively, so there are no
spelling errors.
B. Punctuation
poor
fair
good
very good
excellent
Strategies:-------------------------EXCELLENT: There are few errors that distract from the intended meaning.
294 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
I!I!!IJ End-of-course evaluation for Sally Cavanaugh's EAP writing course.
(See page 226.)
End-of Course-Evaluation
Mark each of the following statements concerning evaluation on a scale
from disagree to agree.
The Course
1. The content of the course was appropriate to my needs.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
2. The skills taught in the course were appropriate to my needs.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
3. There were no cultural misunderstandings.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
3
4
5
agree
4. All instructions were clear.
disagree
1
2
5. Materials and learning activities were appropriate.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
5
agree
5
agree
6. The class atmosphere was positive.
disagree
1
2
3
4
7. The pacing of lessons was appropriate.
disagree
1
2
3
4
8. There was enough variety in the lessons.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
9. Error correction and feedback were appropriate.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
Grading
10. My overall understanding of the class assessment plan was
clear from the beginning of the course.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
11. The grades that I received assessed my work fairly.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
12. I understood my teachers' method of grading my work.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
APPENDIX: CHAPTER TEN •
295
13. I prefer to participate when the teacher makes the grading criteria
for the written assignments, e.g., the essay on poverty.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
14. I prefer it when the teacher uses outside grading criteria for the written
assignments, e.g., the AIDS report, Capital Punishment.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
15. I would have liked to participate when the teacher decided the overall
class grading system at the beginning of the course.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
Teaching
16. The teachers taught us what we needed most.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
17. The teachers were well prepared for class.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
4
5
agree
5
agree
18. The teachers treated me fairly.
disagree
1
2
3
19. General class management was good.
disagree
1
2
3
4
20. The teachers were responsive to my needs.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
Self-Assessment
21. I tried to improve my research skills by spending time in the library
looking around, borrowing books, and asking questions.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
22. I tried to improve my vocabulary skills by using a monolingual English
dictionary.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
23. I tried to improve my writing skills by keeping a record of my mistakes
in a notebook.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
24. I tried to improve my word-processing skills by practicing a lot and
asking questions.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
25. I tried to improve my word-processing skills by keeping a record of all
the new commands that I learnt in a notebook.
disagree
296 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
2
1
A
3
4
5
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
agree
l
26. I tried to improve my essay writing by asking one of my teachers for
help writing an outline.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
27. I tried to improve my essay writing by focusing carefully on the introduction and asking for feedback if necessary.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
28. I tried to prepare myself for my further studies by contacting and
getting information from the department that I will be studying in.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
29. I tried to prepare myself for my further studies by asking my
department for a list of readings/textbooks that I could begin
reading.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
30. I tried to prepare myself for my further studies by asking my
department what referencing style they expect in student essays.
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
31. I carefully organised my notes and course handouts in a 3-ring A4
binder (folder).
disagree
1
2
3
4
5
agree
APPENDIX: CHAPTER TEN •
297
!!Ill Criteria for comparison and contrast essay in Sally Cavanaugh's EAP
writing course. (See page 22 7.)
E7 Written Assignment :l: Comparison and Contrast Essay
Due: Monday, Oct. 24 (Week 3)
Topic: Compare studying in Australian universities to studying in
universities in your country.
Length: 750 words
Grade: 15 marks
You must get 60% to pass.
A 14-15
B 12-13
c 9-11
Requirements: You must meet the requirements below. If you do not, you
may have to resubmit your essay.
1. answer the essay question;
2. include 3 references (supplied by your teachers)
which you must cite according to the Style Manual,
and format correctly in a List of References at the
end of your essay;
3. include a cover page and a list of references;
4. double space your text;
5. use standard A4 paper;
6. if you write by hand: use a pen and write neatly, write
on one side of the paper;
7. if you type, take special care with formatting and
spacing;
8. write no less than the required word limit, and not too
much more;
9. paraphrase, do not plagiarise;
10. do not use abbreviations-spell everything out, for
example, don't/do not; e.g.,/for example.
11. You must get 60% to pass.
Criteria: Your essay will be graded according to the criteria below:
298
8
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Organization The essay displays a logical organisational structure
which includes:
1. Introduction
thesis statement
general statement
2. Body
similarities
differences
3. Conclusion
summarises main points
includes final comments
Paragraphs display a logical organisation structure
which includes: topic sentences, supporting sentences,
concluding sentences.
The writing is well organised for the message to be
followed throughout.
Content Both similarities and differences are clearly presented
and well developed.
Tone and style are appropriate for the task.
Facts and informed judgements are based on valid
sources, for example, first hand experience and referenced
material.
Form Vocabulary is wide and used appropriately.
There is a good variety of sentence structures used which
are generally accurate and appropriate.
While errors may occur, they are generally minor.
Errors in spelling are few.
Punctuation errors are few.
Comparison and contrast linking words are used
appropriately.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER TEN •
299
l!'il3 Criteria for argument essay developed in Sally Cavanaugh's EAP writing
course. (See page 228.)
Written Assignment 2: Argument Essay
Due: Monday, Week 6
Topic: Your own topic related to population control
Length: 750 words
Grade: 20 marks
You must get 60% to pass.
A 18-20
B 15-17
c 12-14
Requirements: You must meet the requirements below. If you do not, you
may have to resubmit your essay.
1. answer your essay question drawing from your reading;
2. include 5 references (supplied by your teachers)
which you must cite according to the Style Manual,
and format correctly in a List of References at the
end of your essay;
3. include no more than 2 direct quotes with a maximum
of three lines; the rest of your citations must be
indirect quotes;
4. include a cover page and a list of references;
5. double space your text;
6. use standard A4 paper;
7. if you write by hand: use a pen and write neatly,
write on one side of the paper;
8. if you type, take special care with formatting and
spacing;
9. write no less than the required word limit, and not too
much more;
10. paraphrase, do not plagiarise;
11. do not use abbreviations-spell everything out, for
example, don't/do not; e.g.,jfor example.
12. You must get 60% to pass.
Criteria: Your essay will be graded according to the criteria below:
300 •
DESIGNING LANGUAGE COURSES:
A
GUIDE FOR TEACHERS
Organization The writing displays a logical organisation which enables
the reader to follow the message easily.
The essay has the following:
An introduction, which:
1. links the topic to a recent event;
2. defines the theme with a question that sets out the
problem behind the topic;
3. gives a statement of why some people disagree with
the writer;
4. gives a main idea statement (MIS) that sets out your
opinion on the topic.
Supporting arguments, each of which has:
1. a restatement of the MIS, e.g., the first reason;
2. a counter argument, an opposing view that adds
weight to your argument;
3. supporting evidence, an example that proves your
support is valid;
A conclusion, which gives a solution to the problem that
you introduced in your introduction.
Content Both sides of the question are clearly presented and
well developed.
Ideas are relevant and well supported.
The argument follows a clear and logical progression.
Abundant examples are used.
Arguments are presented in an interesting way.
Form A wide range of vocabulary is used.
There are few errors in spelling, punctuation, word choice,
and grammar.
A wide range of sentence structures is used.
There is good use of agreement and disagreement structures used in support and counter-argument statements.
APPENDIX: CHAPTER FIVE
8
301
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REFERENCES •
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Designing Language Courses
A
GUIDE
FOR
TEACHERS
Kathleen Graves
In Designing Language Courses: A Guide for Teachers, Graves argues that
course design and language teaching go hand-in-hand, especially when the
teacher approaches planning and implementation based on personal experience, reflection, and analysis of classroom instruction. By combining theory
with personal insights, Graves helps practicing teachers make reasoned
choices about designing a successful course and curriculum.
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